Bring Me Back Home
by Shazviv
Summary: This is a story about Quill and Claire as far as I know my take hasn't been done before or anything like it, it involves a seperation and I can't say anymore than that! So please read and find out what I'm writing about and review it good or bad! :D
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: This is Stephenie Meyer's world of Twilight I'm just borrowing her characters for a while:D

**Authors Note: This is the story as I see it of Quill and Claire, it's not an extremely happy one but it does cut out the whole childhood thing that I have seen in other fan-fictions considerably! I'm not sure if anyone else has wrote one along the same lines as mine it basically has Claire and Quill seperated for a while you will see why as the chapters go along! If you like it please review!! Like I always say anything at all good or bad!! Please enjoy:D**

Chapter One

QPOV

Walking along the road to Sam's house I savoured the warm breeze that was brushing off my face, the scent of pine from the forest mixed with the salt swept off the sea, leaving a fresh after-scent on my clothes. It was days like these that made being a werewolf all the more enjoyable. Already I was imagining running through the forest, racing against the breeze as it played with my fur. My senses were always heightened when I was in werewolf form, the thought of the sensation of wind, like icy fingers running through my fur sent a slight thrill down my spine.

As I came within viewpoint of the house, Sam came out to meet me on the porch; he motioned for me to come along more quickly and to remain quiet. Puzzled I quickened my pace until I was standing right beside him. I looked at Sam quizzically and he smiled in response, just to let me know that it was nothing to worry about. "Emily's nieces are staying over" Sam explained in a hushed whisper "she's only just managed to put them to sleep now!". I nodded and smiled at the exasperated look on Sam's face "Handful are they?" I teased careful to keep it to a whisper. Sam looked like he was having difficulty suppressing a laugh, "You have no idea….up at dawn and ….arguing all day…I mean don't get me wrong there great kids…just tiring..". Sam's shoulders slumped somewhat after saying this and I couldn't help but chuckle quietly to myself at the thought of him being tired out by some little kids. This reminded me that they must have been quite young for them to be taking a nap. "What ages are they?" I asked trying to improve the little picture that I had in my mind of Sam the great werewolf being beaten down a by an equally ferocious toddler. Sam looked at me bemusedly almost as though he could tell what I had been thinking, I knew that he couldn't now but later when we were both wolves then he would see exactly what I was thinking. No doubt I would pay for it then too!.

"Well.." Sam replied "Susan is 5 now and Claire is 2.…..but they might as well be older.." Sam trailed off. This last statement had me completely confused, what on earth was Sam talking about?. Sam looked up and this time laughed at my expression, but quickly quieted it before it got too loud. "They might as well be older Quill because the little heathens know exactly how to get what they want, they have the fine art of manipulation down to a tee!" Sam explained simply. I smirked back at him and we both started looking out towards the sea, lost in our own thoughts before we were interrupted.

Emily stuck her head out the door and looked quite annoyed about something, "You two…" she scolded quietly " thanks a lot you've only gone and woken Susan….there's no chance she'll go back to sleep now!" Sam looked guilty and apologetic and quickly went to her and kissed her on the cheek and mumbled something into her ear which made her smile; she looked up at Sam and kissed him, I took it that he was forgiven.

I found it very awkward being around Sam and Emily and anyone else in the pack for that matter that had imprinted. The way they moved around their partners was overpoweringly full of love. It was like each person was the centre of the other persons world and they revolved around one another. It was difficult to be near that; you felt as though you were intruding on something private; even though you knew exactly what they were thinking from spending time as wolves together, which made it in my opinion worse again.

Sam beckoned for me to follow him inside. When I was in the living room I looked down to see the girl that was who I assumed Susan. I could tell what Sam meant about them being a handful, Susan had in front of her, what looked to be the entire contents of a toy store spread across the floor. Everything from plastic mirrors to plastic ponies. Right then Susan had picked up the mirror and was brushing her hair with a small comb. I smirked at this little show of vanity and wondered to myself if this particular trait would stay with her as she grew up. Susan had a red brown tint to her skin and long brown hair, she had a small mouth and a small button nose, she reminded me of one of those children in toy commercials.

"Quill would you like something to drink?" Emily called softly from the kitchen. I turned and nodded and walked to the kitchen "that would be nice thanks.. What've you got?" I asked whilst peering past her into the now open fridge. Emily smirked at me and pointed towards the drinks shelf, I quickly spotted a pitcher of Emily's home-made lemonade "Oh you made lemonade!" I exclaimed before I could think. Emily laughed "I guess I should take that as I would like a lemonade Emily please!". I blushed at my little outburst thanked Emily as she handed me the glass and went to sit on the sofa, Susan playing at my feet.

Sam and Emily didn't mind us spending so much time at there house all the time, we were family now and that's all there was to it!. Emily came over and sat down on Sam's lap who was sitting on the armchair across from me and we sat there talking into the afternoon. I had nowhere else to be, Jacob was moping around at home, Embry was helping his mother out at home with fixing up their kitchen. I hadn't been too interested in either so had decided to spend the day with Sam and Emily. I was the newest member of the pack and it was good to be around Sam snd Emily, Sam was trying his best to help me with the transition; and I had to admit that I would have found it incredibly difficult without his guidance. Even though I found myself to be thoroughly delighted with the change, being a werewolf was amazing, the power, the speed and the sense of family was better than anything I could imagine.

Sam and I spent some of the morning discussing alternate means of carrying spare clothes around with us, an annoying and potentially embarrassing problem to be faced with. Every time I changed my clothes would rip to shreds unless that is unless I had taken them off before hand. Of course everyone of us was faced with this problem but because I was the newest my changing was a little unpredictable. If I lost my temper I found it incredibly difficult to keep from changing so as a result I was quickly running out of clothes to wear.

As we were talking about this a cry was heard from the other room, for some reason this cry bothered me; I felt the urge to go to the child that was now crying obviously having woken up and found themselves alone. Without thinking I was standing, Sam looked up at me in confusion "Where are you going?". I wasn't sure myself why I had stood up and just attempted being nonchalant by shrugging and stretching "Just needed a stretch is all!" I smirked at him hoping , that I had covered up my brief moment of insanity. Sam till looked at me sceptically but seemed to let it go.

As we continued talking I felt inexplicably restless as though there was somewhere else that I needed to be. I could hear Emily struggling to calm Claire down, again I felt the incredible urge to go help her only just managing to stop myself from getting up again this time. Sam was now watching me with an odd expression on his face, his forehead puckered in concentration as though he were trying to read my thoughts. I grinned sheepishly at him "Sounds like she's putting up quite a fight there doesn't it!" I said laughing uneasily. Sam nodded and I saw him look away from me in the direction of the hall where the sound of Emily's approaching footsteps could be heard, his forehead furrow deepened. Then Emily appeared in the living room carrying Claire.

I could not even begin to describe what I felt when I saw Claire, suddenly again I got the overwhelming urge to go to her and take her from Emily; who's grip I could see that Claire was struggling against. Claire was tiny, she had raven black hair that was unkempt from sleep, she had pale brown skin for a quileute ,her eyes were a startling blue and she had full pouting lips and a perfect little nose. that's when I realised that I was staring at her and quickly swallowed and looked away. What was happening to me? Why was I suddenly so utterly mesmerised by a two year old?. Emily looked oddly at me and gave up trying to hold onto Claire and set her on the ground. Then to my surprise and everyone else's Claire came running to me and wrapped her little arms around my legs.

I stared open mouthed at the little angel that was currently holding my legs like her life depended on it and cautiously put my hand out to touch her hair in response. Hearing a quite gasp from Emily quickly knocked me out of my trance like state, I quickly pulled my hand back and ran it over my hair. I gulped again and looked up at Sam with what I would imagine looked like utter panic. Sam was looking at me in complete wonder and Emily seemed to be struggling to comprehend what she was seeing. I looked back soundlessly at Claire who in response automatically looked up at me with those penetrating eyes. I gasped and was suddenly hit with the realisation that I was completely and utterly in love with this child; I would I thought to myself gladly kill to keep her safe. This realisation scared me more than anything else and I quickly stood up careful not to hurt Claire. Claire continued to hold onto my leg with the surprising strength for someone so small.

"I HAVE TO GO!" I practically screamed at Sam and Emily. Emily seemingly brought back to a state of awareness rushed forward and pulled Claire from my leg, only for her to burst into tears. Without thinking I had her in my arms before Emily could even pick her up. Immediately Claire ceased crying and curled into my chest. Horrified I quickly handed her to Emily only for Claire to pull at my t-shirt as I pulled away. I swear I nearly cried at the pained look on Claire's face and wretched slightly.

This whole incident had gone entirely in silence which was now broken by Sam who had been staring at me incredulously. "Quill…" Sam began, but before he could finish I had sprinted to the door "Thanks for having me see ya!" I called over my shoulder as I rushed through the door. Going faster as I felt sharp stab-like pains to my heart each time Claire cried out for me.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: This is Stephenie Meyers world I only make the storyline and the occasional new character:D

**Authors Note: Thanks for reviewing the first chapter! Please review this one too!! Just in response to the message I received about my my-space page (I'm sorry accidentally deleted the message forgot you're name!), I fixed my profile and the link that I thought was there is now there!! Alright then thanks for reading and please review good or bad:D**

Chapter Two

Once I was outside I started running and could feel the tears welling up in my eyes, which made me even more disgusted. I could hear Sam yelling after me to slow down and wait up for him, but before he could catch up with me I had changed, not caring who saw me. Sam quickly changed behind me and I could not escape him in my head, "Quill please wait up we need to talk". "NO" I yelled at him all I needed to do was to get away, and ignore this; it wasn't happening it couldn't be happening.

"Quill please listen to me!!!" Sam pleaded with me but I couldn't bring myself to face him. "Please Sam I can't…I just need to get away.. I don't want to even think about it" before I could even develop this thought any further Sam had come at me out of nowhere and tackled me to the ground. I struggled for a minute or two before Sam ordered me to stop. "Quill stop this now!". It was a direct order I had to stop I couldn't ignore it Sam was the leader of the pack. "Now go change! And we'll talk" Sam finished with yet another order.

I went deeper into the forest that surrounded us and changed back into Quill the human, and put on the spare shorts that I had tied around my ankle. I pinched the bridge of my nose, and struggled to control my breathing. "Quill?" Sam called out to me and my dry sob directed him to exactly where I was. Before I could do anything further I fell back against a tree sliding down to the ground feeling the air rush out of me, I stared at the ground trying to comprehend what had just happened but couldn't understand it.

As Sam walked into the patch of trees that I was sitting in, I looked up and saw that he looked truly concerned. I had expected him to be furious at my behaviour, after all Claire was as good as his niece too and here I was completely taken in by her, snatching her practically from Emily's arms.

"Quill…" Sam began hesitantly, "its going to be alright" . I shook my head and felt myself panic and started rambling at Sam. "How….how…. HOW IS THIS GOING TO BE OKAY SAM???" I couldn't stop myself from roaring now "SHES TWO AND I….WANTED TO TAKE HER AWAY FROM EVERYONE IN THERE AND KEEP HER TO MYSELF….. I MEAN WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!!" I trailed off, I had an idea of what was happening but I was hoping that I was wrong, praying , wishing against everything that I was wrong. But in the next moment Sam only confirmed my worst fear.

"Quill….its not the end of the world alright?…..sure its going to be hard especially considering how young she is and how long that you're going to have to wait…but it's neither of yours fault for imprinting on one another…it was meant to happen.." Sam finished simply. I looked up again and saw that Sam was looking at me with a sympathetic expression on his face.

I struggled to get my head around the thought…..I had just imprinted on a two year old. How was that possible, it couldn't be? Could it?. Yet again Sam answered my unspoken question "There are legends about this you know Quill?….there really is nothing wrong with what has happened". Sam gave me a small sad smile " Its just going to mean a lot of patience on your part I'm afraid…" Sam looked at me almost willing me to answer, or at least to show some recognition for what was happening. I looked up at Sam and choked out what I wanted to say " I can't believe this…..she…. she's only two…. I didn't think that I could do that I mean two…" I trailed off unable to say anything more at the time. Sam looked around him and crouched down in order to be on the same eye level as me.

Sam sighed and continued "Quill I know this is going to be difficult but…..it will be fine despite what your thinking you know that don't you?" Sam looked at my face beseechingly. I thought about what he said and couldn't at that moment see any light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. "Sam…..how?" I finally managed to choke out not able to look him in the face. I felt Sam shift slightly slower in my direction, and looked cautiously out of the corner of my eye to see that he was now sitting beside me. "Quill it's true Claire is two….but she will get older and then you will be there ..it's not as though your getting any older now is it?" I shook my head at this, almost as a refusal, as though I was still unwilling to accept what he was saying to me.

Then I heard Sam draw in a deep breath and heard a small smile in his voice as he spoke, "Really I was just thinking…this has done you a favour Quill….". Now I did look at him completely surprised by this sudden change of direction in the conversation , my expression must have said as much as Sam quickly finished what he was saying. "Look at it this way Quill…what if for arguments sake you met someone and you fell for them and got married?…forgetting about today that is…and you had children and then….then Claire gets older and you meet her at my place and then you imprint….wife children gone out the window! ..you don't want that do you?…..hurt the people you love.." Sam broke off and I heard his voice break with his final words.

I knew that he was thinking about Leah and felt guilty for knowing what had happened between them, one reason not to enjoy the close connection that the pack shared. But what he said had struck a note with me and made me think about the benefits of what had just happened, maybe Sam was right but that would mean that I would have to wait for almost 16 years before I could finally be with Claire. The thought of it made me cringe, 16 years was a lifetime to me….it was my entire life so far twice over. But I knew that I would wait, I knew then that any other girl I had any romantic interest in before wouldn't have any chance now no one was as important to me as Claire…my Claire. I sighed at the thought of the words my Claire and blushed, remember Quill she's two …. But the thing was I didn't feel that way about her now, I felt more like I had to protect her to keep her happy and fulfil every wish she had. I looked up at Sam and nodded, everything that Sam had been saying had made sense. Sam seemed to think from my expression that I was suitably calm now and seemed to relax slightly.

"Are you alright?" Sam asked hesitantly. It was the first time that he had actually asked me how I was feeling as opposed to telling me how I should be feeling and it calmed me further. "I'm fine….I'm amazed at this but I'm fine…..you're right I can see that…it doesn't make it much easier …..but it does help.." I trailed off and smiled sheepishly at Sam. Sam seemed amazingly relieved by my sudden change of attitude and smiled broadly back at me. " I'm glad…..this is going to be interesting…" Sam smiled, I looked up at him slightly annoyed that he seemed to be now enjoying himself on my behalf, Sam noticed and quickly explained. "Quill don't get me wrong I fully sympathise with you about how young she is and for having to wait, but what I meant was that it's unusual for so many in a pack to imprint….usually it's very rare…". I shrugged not really finding this very interesting, whilst Sam looked on thoughtfully.

I saw Sam frown slightly then, "Quill you do realise that you're going to have to wait for quite a long time before she is in any way ready for this don't you?" Sam said somewhat cautiously. I stared up at him and suddenly felt quite angry at him for what I assumed was some sort of accusation for me hurting Claire, "I WOULD NEVER HURT HER NEVER " I shouted angrily at him, feeling myself shake uncontrollably at the thought. Sam stood up looking cautiously at me again. I concentrated on breathing and calmed myself down; changing would not help the situation at all. "That's not what I meant….you know that I just meant that she would be too young to understand fully what this means for quite some time to come…" Sam shrugged unsure of whether or not it would set me off again. I thought about this and sighed before speaking to him calmly this time, "Sam….it's not like you and Emily at all…." I began uncertain of how to explain what I was feeling, "Its like she is the centre of my world and I move around her ….. I do whatever she wants …if she wants me to play with her I'll play, if she's hurt I'll comfort her …. now she seems to want a father figure and that's what I feel like being to her……if that makes sense, I don't want her in that way at all how could I?" I finished unsure if what I had said made sense to Sam let alone to me.

Sam smiled looking thoughtful again, "I'm glad about that, I was hoping it was how you were feeling…all I can say is that Claire is one lucky kid, you will be one of the best father figures around to her, you'll know exactly how to deal with her… be her friend when she needs one…and later more than her friend…" Sam seemed rather awkward at the final note, but not as awkward as I felt. It was strange to think of Claire and I together especially when every time I thought of her all I could see was her two year old small self. But what Sam was saying made sense to me, Claire and I would progress throughout her life through all the different stages, that's what I wanted and all I could hope for. I wanted it so much that it almost hurt me to think about it.

"So.." Sam said suddenly breaking through my reverie, "We had better get back from the sounds of things when we left Claire was going to tear the house down. Sam laughed slightly at this and smiled at me, if it wasn't for the gravity of the situation it would have been oddly funny, especially I thought if it were happening to someone else. I nodded reluctantly in agreement and slowly stood up, to follow Sam.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight but I what happens to the character here is all mine!

**Authors Note: Thanks you for the reviews and the alerts something that I always forget to thank people for! Please continuing to review good or bad:D**

Chapter Three

When we got back I could hear Claire crying still and almost ran to her. Sam chuckled at my reaction "This should be interesting….you do know that little kids cry over just about everything?". I scowled at Sam and grimaced at the thought of feeling the compulsion to run to Claire every time that she cried. I didn't mind going to her on the contrary it was something that made me happy to think of, if not a little impractical. I could only imagine the teasing the rest of the pack would have in-store for me . Almost as though he had read my thoughts Sam started to speak again. " Quill don't worry about the others they'll understand….and if they say anything you know it's not meant in disrespect your our brother now don't forget that". I smiled at this, it made me feel better to think of that and I knew then that it would be fine and that the others would just leave me be.

As we walked onto the porch I could here Emily pleading with Claire to calm down but to no avail. Susan could be heard teasing Claire calling her a big baby which set her off into another round of sobs. This time I couldn't help but run in to see if she was alright; no sooner was I in the door than Claire had ran to me and was sitting on my lap on the couch. I was surprised at the speed in which I did it as was Emily who was looking at me as though I had sprouted an extra head and I blushed. Sam came in behind me and laughed at the sight. Emily looked up at him enquiringly, Sam went to her and whispered to her what had just happened. Emily looked up at me and for the first time I felt nervous, "I thought as much…" she started "why else would you bolt out of here like that , and Claire throw a tantrum befitting a teenager .." Emily looked at me for a moment, and then smiled. "Its alright Quill, I'm not angry at you…Claire was the one who threw the tantrum not you!"

I exhaled relieved that Emily wasn't angry and looked down at Claire who was looking up at my face, scrutinising my features. I stared back and smiled at her, after considering this for a moment Claire smiled back up at me and her eyes lit up as she did this; my heart jumped and I hugged her closer to me. Claire hugged me closer greedily and closed her eyes and from what I could tell fell asleep. Emily watched me with a strange expression, "Quill…..you had better stay until she goes to bed later alright?…." Emily trailed off before continuing, "I don't think that I could handle another one of little Claire's outbursts again". I nodded at her cautious of waking Claire. But when I looked down Claire was still asleep and breathing steadily, I thought that she might be slightly too warm so I loosened my grip on her which made her hug closer to me still. I was surprised by everything she did, I had never been so interested in what a child or any other person did for that matter in my life and I almost laughed at the irony.

Emily and Sam went into the kitchen obviously talking about what had just happened and also attempting to keep the noise levels down in case Claire woke again. Susan had retreated to the guest room where before leaving she had announced to me, she was organising a wedding between her rag doll Annie and teddy bear Fred. I had smiled at this and shook my head at the thought. Soon the place grew very quiet, all except for Claire's breathing and the occasional hint of a whisper from the kitchen. I could feel myself getting drowsy and soon I was asleep.

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I wasn't sure if it had been minutes or hours that I had been asleep, but I was awoken by a sharp tapping on my shoulder. Unwillingly I opened my eyes to see a startling pair of blue eyes staring back at me, Claire had a fierce expression on her face, almost as though she were annoyed at me and had been trying to wake me for some time. I smiled at her and she thought about this before smiling back at me.

"Claire" she said simply, pointing to herself. I was surprised by her speaking and didn't answer at first, she tapped me impatiently again waiting for a response. I laughed at this and spoke to her, I pointed to myself and said "Quill". Claire's eyes tightened at this and her lips moved slightly as thought she were almost trying to fit the word in her mouth. "Quill" she said simply and smiled. I again smiled back, it was strange but I felt elatedly happy over something so small, her voice was a pleasant soft voice which had a demanding note to it, she must be demanding I thought to myself. Pulling at my hand the introductions apparently completed Claire jumped onto the floor and moved toward a group of small to cars against the wall on the opposite side of the room. We made our way over and sat there and played.

I was right, Claire was demanding and knew exactly what she wanted, she couldn't really say much except "Claire", "Quill", "Mine" and "No"; four of the most beautiful words in the English language now as far as I was concerned. Later Emily and Sam walked back into the living room having attended Annie and Fred's wedding and smiled at the spectacle before them. Claire had built up some plastic tracks around me which she was using as the road for her cars and I was playing with them too.

"Awww Quill look at you playing with the cars" Sam cajoled, " She has you wrapped around her little finger already." Emily threw him a warning look but I just threw a teddy bear at him full force in the face, now it was Emily's turn to laugh as Claire looking affronted at the abuse of her teddy bear slapped my forearm angrily and wagged her finger at me accusingly, "Sorry" I exclaimed seriously before Sam burst out laughing, and I blushed despite myself. Emily walked into the kitchen offering me something to eat or drink as she went, "No Emily I'm fine thanks" I said smiling at her. Emily paused and looked at me "Quill you're positively beaming…do you know that?" Emily said her expression somewhat amazed. I considered this for a moment and simply smiled back at her not caring or feeling the need to explain myself. I honestly could not remember a time when I had felt this happy before, and didn't feel the need to do anything to change this.

Sam sat down on the couch and spoke to me as I continued to play with Claire, "Emily is planning on telling Claire's parents about this…" he began uncertainly " I mean you're probably going to want to be around her aren't you?" I thought about this and considered not seeing Claire; I knew that wasn't an option if I couldn't see Claire I didn't think I could cope; it was like she was a part or extension of me. I looked up and nodded "Do you think there going to mind?" I asked hesitantly, afraid of what Sam's answer was going to be.

Sam looked at the ground for a moment and bit his lip before continuing, a solemn expression on his face. "Honestly Quill I don't know…. I hope they don't obviously for your sake as well as Claire's ….but they don't know anything about us and I'm not sure if they will take it very well…" Sam trailed of and I gulped feeling a familiar rise of panic swelling up inside me. I looked down at Claire and couldn't imagine not being able to see her, "How likely do you think it is that they won't let me be near her?" I managed to blurt out nervously. Sam looked at me sympathetically before continuing, "Well Emily's sister isn't exactly tribe orientated…..she married a man from London, and her parents didn't approve of it… she lives outside of the tribe now and refuses to play a part in their customs.." Sam looked at his hands before continuing. "They could be accepting….but Quill I can't make any promises you realise that don't you?". Sam finished uncertainly.

Sam's little speech didn't help me in any way I now felt truly panicked and looked at Claire with a slight desperation. I wanted to pull her to me and run with her; run and never look back. Sam who had until then been sitting stood up and moved towards me almost hesitantly as though he could read my mind again. I recoiled slightly away from him although I had no real reason to. "Quill it's alright you know… I'm sure that we'll be able to sort it out… sort something out…" Sam trailed off again increasing my panic. Claire looked at me and seeing my nervous state walked up to me and hugged me tightly. I was taken aback at this gesture and her concern for me, and hesitantly hugged her back gently. Not for the fist time that day I felt like crying, this little girl had such power over me; how could I bare being made stay apart from her.

I let Claire go reluctantly, and despite her protests stood up, "well when are you going to speak with them?" I asked apprehensively. Sam looked at me steadily "When they come to pick them up….we thought that it would be best to tell them in person". I nodded slowly in agreement, distracted again by Claire gripping onto my leg tightly like before. "There coming the day after tomorrow…." Sam finished. My head snapped up "What so soon?" I ran my hand over my hair and breathing grew short. "I'm sorry Quill…." Sam finished.

"I think that I'd better leave now…" I said quickly, I needed time to think, to myself. Sam took a step towards me looking as though he would reach out to me stopping himself before the gesture ever really came to being. His expression looked troubled for a minute, but then he stood back again. I made to move but forgot about Claire gripping onto my leg so when I lifted mine she wrapped her own legs around my leg and moved with me. "Claire sweetie please let go of my leg.." I pleaded, Claire just looked up at me and shook her head. I smiled despite myself, she was a stubborn little thing she reminded me of myself. Claire gripped on tighter still to me and I had to bend over in order to prise her hands off of me. As I did this she looked me in the eyes and practically shouted "MINE", this knocked the wind right out of me and I just nodded my head, kissed her in her hair and whispered back "mine". It seemed perfectly natural to me and I smiled at her feeling completely at ease again, that is until I looked up and saw Sam and Emily looking at both of us. Sam was looking at me with a pitiful expression whilst Emily was looking at her niece in what could only be described as amazement.

I stood up again quickly, Claire seemingly comforted by my words let go of my leg and seemed happy to stand beside me. "Right well I'll see you later then….ummm yeah…" I said , half mumbling. Before Sam or Emily could say anything I quickly made my way out the door and ran away from the house and for the second time that day I changed when I hit the forest border, running to help heal the pain, running to try and forget the small child who had stolen my heart….


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: This is Stephenie Meyer;s world I just like messing around in it!

**Authors note: Alright then thanks for the reviews and the adds the story has only been up about three days and it's close to 500 hits already and has been alerted 15 times and favorited 8 times :D Not huge but huge for me:D Anyways hope you enjoy the chapter!!! Review please...I'm going to be annoying here but I tend to update faster when I'm reviewed...I hate when people do this but it just makes me write faster I'm sorry so I may upload again today you never know:O**

Chapter Five

Three Months Later.

I didn't want there sympathy, I just wanted to be left alone, I didn't want to be constantly reminded of everything that had happened, it already hurt enough thinking about it to myself. They didn't understand it, how empty I felt, how torn I was at not being able to see her. All they tried to do was cheer me up and I didn't want that I wanted to suffer I wanted every ounce of pain, just so I would still know that I was alive, because without it I was lost.

I couldn't forget it how could I….. Sam and Emily had set out to tell Claire's parents when they came about me, but they didn't get the chance. Brian, Claire's father's father had died and they needed to go to London for the funeral. Sam and Emily had both felt that now was not the time to tell them, and I had reluctantly accepted that. The thought of Claire going to London scared me, it was so far and I couldn't be there for her that it had killed me to have her so far away.

Sam and Emily had then decided to tell Brian and Emily's sister Jane, about Claire and I a few weeks afterwards, they hadn't wanted to upset them more than they already were in particular Brian. So I waited with what little patience that I could muster and settled for running to Claire's house and keeping watch at night. This went on everyday until Sam and Emily finally got to speak to Brian and Jane. Once they spoke to them that all ended.

I had seen it all in Sam's mind despite his attempts to block it from me; they hadn't thought it appropriate for me to be there when they were telling them. But I waited outside impatient again for the outcome, standing in the rain for what seemed like hours. Then the yelling began, I could hear them calling Sam a freak and felt my stomach drop, this wasn't going to go in my favour. I could hear them shouting something about how Sam could have killed her and realised that they were talking about Emily and what Sam had done to her face. I groaned inwardly at this and felt like running in there and shouting at them telling them to have some sense Sam could control himself now, but before I could get the chance the door burst open. The yelling continued "JUST KEEP AWAY FROM US AND TELL THAT OTHER FREAK TO STAY AWAY FROM CLAIRE" Brian roared back at Sam and Emily. I stood into the light and at first they didn't seem to notice me. However Sam did and wore a torturous expression on his face "Quill" he muttered.

Brian heard this and saw where Sam was looking and almost launched himself off of the porch to get to him. Brian was a tall man , almost as tall as me and had more noticeable muscle mass than I had but I knew that he didn't have nearly as much strength as I had himself. "YOU" he bellowed coming up to me and grabbing me by the front of my shirt, I braced myself for a fight. "STAY AWAY FROM MY DAUGHTER YOU FREAK!….IF I EVER SEE YOU NEAR HER AGAIN I SWEAR TO GOD….". Brian trailed off and I just stared at him dumbfounded unable to say a word in my defence. I was horrified and utterly distraught at the outcome and couldn't find the words to verbalise this so instead I just stared at him. This seemed to enrage him more and he pushed me with his full force. Out of habit as opposed to him actually being able to move me I staggered backwards and everything went numb as I watched Brian and Jane get in there car and scream away.

Sam was yelling after them and Emily was crying in what seemed to be a mixture of anger and when she turned to me pain. Then Sam looked at me and he pity on his face made my blood run cold. I realised that there was something that they weren't telling me, something important. Sam began "Quill…I am so sorry…..they wouldn't…." Sam's voice broke and Emily had to continue for him. "Quill….they came here to tell us news of there own too…..its about Brian's mother….Quill" Emily looked around uncertainly. "what is it?" I asked my voice sounding hoarse. "I'm so sorry Quill….Brian's mother needs them….she's in a wheelchair and Brian's father was her carer….." Emily trailed off again. I struggled with this for a minute or two, what had Brian's mother coming to live with them have to do between Claire and I?….. That's when it hit me…Brian's mother lived in London…; " Where are they going to live?" I asked quickly. Sam looked at me with a torturous expression and before either of them could answer I roared louder than I had ever roared in my entire life. I thought that my heart was going to split in two they were taking her to London away from me…..they were taking half of me with them; I could almost feel my heart tear in half. I wanted to run to her now but I realised that I didn't know where she was, I couldn't just go charging after her what would I do when I got there. "Quill.." Sam said softly, my head snapped up, "they didn't bring them back….their in London with their Grandmother and their aunt." Sam said seeming to sense my desire to run for her, and then I just gave up and fell to my knees, if my heart wasn't in pieces before then it was now. I started to sob and what could only be described as howl in pain, rocking back on forth on the lawn.

Sam came towards me his arm outstretched slightly as if to comfort me and I hit it away shouting something unintelligible at him. He stood back and ran his hand over his hair, looking as though he would cry out too not knowing what to do. Emily walked towards me Sam tried to stop her but she gently pushed his hand away and walked to me and reached out her arms. Before I knew what I was doing I was in her arms and she was hugging me tightly. I sobbed into her shoulder and I didn't care who saw me or how weak I looked. I could hear voices approaching and recognised them as Embry, Jared and Jacob.

They all stopped when they saw us, and looked to each one of us confusion and worry etched across their faces. "What's going…" Embry began, but before he could finish I had wrenched myself from Emily's grip and ran as fast as I possibly could away from them…away from everyone, away from the pack, away from my friends, away from my family.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Twilight is owned by Stephenie Meyer

**Authors Note: Just wanted to say that last chapter was chapter four not 5 like I had wrote on the page! My upload structure is a little different to that on my laptop! Thanks for the reviews I'm sorry to make you people sad but it had to happen for my story to work and no Claire's grandmother can't come to America she loved her husband dearly and now he's gone she doesn't want to be separated from his memory also and shes an old lady so she gets what she wants!! Besides I think Claire's parents want her far away from Quill for now...but don't fret she won't be gone forever I said a separation not an estrangement!! I know this is very short and I'm sorry about that but I have to edit the next chapter and since I'm away in an Internet free zone for the weekend it will be Sunday night before I upload again! So until then enjoy the story!!**

Chapter Five

S.P.O.V

It was killing Quill….I could see it slowly eating at him tearing him apart. Whenever he changed I couldn't bare to hear what he was thinking or feeling. Now even Jacob who had to struggle with his loss of Bella, was beginning to doubt that his love for her was anything even as close to what Quill has for Claire. Between Jacob worrying about this, mourning for Bella and Quill's thoughts; the rest of the pack were thoroughly miserable.

But despite the thoughts that were playing out in Quill's mind, he was slowly starting to build himself up again. After it had happened initially, Quill was inconsolable to anyone but Emily, who he seemed to find a connection with Claire. I didn't mind in the slightest at this, it was partially my fault that Brian and Jane had reacted the way they did…. Brian asking how exactly Emily got the scars….When they found out they were not only horrified with me, and when I tried to explain that I was only a newborn and couldn't control it like I could now; they demanded to know how new Quill was too. I almost cried at this when I had to tell them that he was one of the youngest. This totally destroyed any chance that he had, they saw it that if I could do this to Emily then Quill too could do it to Claire. My guilt for hurting Emily was unbearable but now it was positively excruciating with the addition of my pain for Quill.

Before this Quill had been a happy, slightly arrogant boy, now seeing him he looked like he had aged by years, beyond the werewolf growing phase. Instead of allowing the pack to see that he is suffering however Quill is trying to hide it from us, by attempting to be the same old Quill pre-Claire. His attempts are either lacklustre or else over the top, never quite managing to find that proper balance, it was painful to watch. Especially when he came over to my house, which he now rarely did. Every-time that he was there, he would stare off into space and occasionally look at different places that I assumed reminded him of his day with Claire. I couldn't imagine what it would be like to loose Emily…. It was impossible I didn't even want to think about it, I would die without her…. All I could hope was that Quill could manage to hold out for Claire…just long enough for her to come back. Right now the likelihood of that happening seemed slim to none. All I could do was hope……


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight

**Authors Note: Thanks for all the adds and the reviews keep them coming please:D Thanks for pointing out the spelling mistakes I'll keep that in mind I type it without even thinking at this stage so if I spell Quil wrong again please excuse me I know his name only has one "l". So please review:D**

Fourteen Years Later

Chapter Six.

C.P.O.V

Making our way through the small town of Forks, I felt oddly at home. I couldn't explain it, maybe it was the constant misty rain which reminded me of my native London which seemed a million miles away from me now. My mam Jane was driving our rental car down to La Push the Quileute reservation just outside of Forks to visit my aunt Emily. I grew nervous as we passed a sign saying that La Push was 3 kilometres; this was the first time since I was two that I had seen my aunt and I had never met my cousins either which was something new to me.

Emily was Jane's only sister and she was married here to a man called Sam, my mother and Emily had fought when I was younger and soon after that we had moved to London. Jane never really spoke to Emily after that, despite numerous attempts on my aunts part to try and fix it. But my mother and father had recently divorced and Jane couldn't bare being in London any more and had decided to come and live in America again. At the moment we were staying in a hotel in Port Angeles, before that we had been staying in Seattle and that's when Jane had contacted Emily. I had heard most of the muted conversation from my room.

Jane was asking to come and see Emily and speak with her, but she had some conditions which didn't seem to make much sense to me. I had heard her make my aunt promise to not have "Him" there; exactly who him was I was unsure because from what Jane had said my uncle Sam was going to be there too. When I had tried to ask her she had told me I shouldn't eavesdrop on other people's conversations and that if I wanted to come that I should ask less questions.

Of course that had shut me up, I wanted nothing more than to go and meet my family; till now all I had known was my grandmother Regina a kindly old woman who was wheelchair bound. I had loved my grandmother more than anyone else in my family, I had spent most of my free time with her, she was my closest friend. Apart from her there was my older sister Susan who was the star of the family, beautiful and talented, she had been accepted to one of the most prestigious theatre schools in England; and was working to become an actress on the west end. Susan was the light of my parents life, she was everything that I was not.

Whilst Susan was of average height she made up for it by being slender and perfectly in proportion, she had medium length brown hair, and a deep russet skin tone that of a member of the quileute tribe; she had a perfect face too, small features again directly in proportion. It always infuriated me that she was so perfect when I was so out of balance, the girl was perfectly symmetrical whilst I was all over the place. I was quite tall in comparison and was quite pale in contrast with her russet skin. Whilst I was thin too, I couldn't be described as slender, my sister had small breasts which were perfect for her whilst mine were quite big, which always embarrassed me to no end. It usually drew unwanted attention from boys my age hormonal and immature. Apart from that I had a very different face too, I had the same small nose which I liked, but my lips unlike Susan's were bigger and pouting to look at; and my eyes were an electric blue surrounded by heavy black eyelashes. I had always loved my eyes, they were different but in a good way. My hair was a deep black which hung down around my waist. My mother was forever trying to make me cut my hair into a more fashionable style but I had resisted, I was too attached to it. The furthest that I had ever gone with it was to cut off the split ends and maintain my fringe which was long and choppy and almost fell into my eyes. My grandmother had always told me I was beautiful, but when you are being constantly compared to someone else then your entire life then it tends to take away what little confidence you used to have.

Soon we were I La Push and Jane spoke to me for the first time in what seemed like hours, but had probably only been minutes. "We're just about there now … another few minutes…" she trailed off looking nervously out of the window. If she was nervous then I didn't know how I should be feeling, when I could feel my breath growing sharp and I clutched at my chest. Jane snapped out of her daze and gave me a sidelong glance, "Claire use your inhaler would you?" she exclaimed exasperatedly. My asthma was another flaw that my mother used to criticise me. It was not as though I could help it but it had restricted them from going places when I was younger. Every-time I went further east from London my breathing would become increasingly difficult to control, meaning that I had to carry an arsenal of asthma medication, from inhalers to painkillers. Once I had gone on a school trip to France and had passed out on the plane mid-ways over the British channel. It was mortifying and I had to be sent home straight away as I could not regain control of my breathing. It was strange to me though lately since I had come to America but my breathing had improved dramatically, before I would have anything from five to twelve asthma attacks a day. It was infuriating but I had noticed that I was down now to two or three maybe a day. This was my first today and it only happened when I was nervous.

I pulled out my inhaler and took two short blasts from it, which quickly relieved my breathing for me. I sighed and placed it back into my messenger bag which was a constant attachment to my hip. It was filled with asthma medication and my writing pad which was filled with short stories and poems that I had hastily scribbled down. I sighed again and looked up and saw a familiar welcoming looking house. I instinctively knew before Jane even pulled into the driveway that it was Emily's house and felt oddly calm and at home.

I looked up at Jane who was shifting uncomfortably in her seat, looking up at the house with a look of doubt. I thought for a minute that she would drive away, and almost went to put my seatbelt back on, Jane interrupted the movement though when she sighed and looked around seeming slightly more at ease than before. "Come on then Claire…we haven't got all day.." I rolled my eyes, it was typical of my mother to blame her brief moment of doubt on my slight hesitation with the seatbelt. I quickly got out of the car before she could attempt to pin some other accusation on me.

Jane slowly got out of the car and pulled her handbag tighter to her side as she moved, for the first time I took notice of what she was wearing; it was a light pink skirt suit, probably Chanel knowing Jane's penchant for designer clothes Chanel being her favourite. I thought that it was a bit much for meeting her sister but then again my mother never did things by halves, like my sister she liked the limelight. This also reminded me of my father Brian who had a similar mindset to them but tended to tone it down to appropriate situations, unlike my mother he didn't feel the need to wear an entirely designer outfit to go down to the local store. For this reason I felt that I could relate with Brian more than Jane, although this was the only level in which I did relate to him.

Brian was an architect and was quite renowned, he had designed a number of important landmarks in the last twenty years; this made him quite in demand and meant that I didn't see him as much as would be expected. He was hardworking and expected the same from all of the family, I was a constant disappointment to him, in that I didn't pursue things the way my sister did. I wasn't able to act, I couldn't play sports with my asthma; and I didn't try and keep my appearance looking like I had just stepped off the runway.

A cough from beside me brought me back into a state of awareness, and I followed Jane slowly towards the house standing in front of us.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer...Twilight...she owns it..

**Authors note: Considering people asked to see the next chapter so quickly and I'm still awake (it's 1am here I decided to update again...and don't worry Quil will be returning to the story very very soon it's important to see what Claire is like too!! The story will be told from both of their perspectives and that is all that I am saying on the matter:O...Review again please:D**

Chapter Seven

C.P.O.V

I could feel my breathing grow slightly strained as we waited for someone to answer the door, I quickly began counting my breaths, a method that I had used at times when I didn't want to use the inhaler. Before I could think further about this the door swung open widely. Standing there was a woman who undoubtedly was my aunt, I could tell from the three long scars the ran down along one side of her face. I had been told about Emily's face by my father once when he was drunk; he said that she had been attacked by a bear and he had then proceeded to laugh at this as though it was some kind of joke. I had thought that strange but was glad now that he had told me because even though I was prepared I still found it difficult not to stare.

Emily despite the scars was beautiful and wore a warm welcoming expression on her face, she smiled at both of us and I couldn't help but smile in response. "Jane it's so good to see you!" Emily exclaimed before lunging forward and pulling her into a hug. Jane seemed slightly taken aback by her enthusiasm but patted her uncertainly on the back in response. "Hello Emily…its nice to see you too.." Jane trailed off. Emily didn't seemed abashed at my mother's severe lack of enthusiasm, and quickly turned to me and was beaming at me, I grinned back at her which made her face light up. "Claire…. Oh look at how much you've grown….you're a woman now…" Emily looked as though she might cry at this before she grabbed me into a bear hug. I couldn't help but smile her happiness and enthusiasm was positively infectious.

"Come in, come in.." Emily was waving and exclaiming to us " Don't stand on the doorstep!". The inside of the house wasn't quite what I had expected from the outside. It was clear to me that there had been an extension here, there was no obvious signs to someone the normal eye, but having spent time around my father on building sites and the like I had learned about different structural properties.

The kitchen was the first room that I saw it was huge and was made of pine with a green finish , with an old stove against the back wall. Everything had a rustic, natural feel to it, there was a lot of wood running through the kitchen and the living room that was attached to it. The living room consisted of a large widescreen TV, and a battered brown leather couch, with a mix match of armchairs and bean bags. It was a far cry from our designer kitchen and living rooms back in London where everything had a hint of chrome or glass running through it. But the rooms here made me smile, they felt like a real home, and I was suddenly jealous of my aunt.

"Please sit down and I'll get us some drinks!" Emily exclaimed. I watched as she quickly ran into the kitchen grabbed some different foodstuffs from different cupboards and watched in amazement as she carried a tray laden with food and drinks over to the coffee table in the middle of the living room. I could feel my mouth water at the sight of some muffins on the tray and reached hesitantly before a warning glance from Jane stopped me. Emily noticed and smiled at me sympathetically before winking at me unbeknownst to Jane, "Claire would you like to try one of my muffins?.. Made them this morning should be fresh still!" she exclaimed before pulling one out and placing it on a napkin and handing it to me. I smiled in thanks and quickly tucked in ignoring any bad looks that Jane was probably giving me.

We spent what seemed like hours just chatting and making up for years of absence. Jane who started off reluctant gradually became warmer and seemed to be enjoying herself. I thought that I could see what they would have been once like as younger closer sisters. Emily told us about her children my cousins Hannah , Caleb and Riley. Caleb and Riley were the oldest and they were identical twins, Hannah on the other hand was the youngest and was in constant opposition with her brothers who liked to gang up against her. But according to Emily that they were despite this so close that they had may as well have been triplets. I could imagine from the way Emily acted and spoke about each one of them that her family was entirely different from that of my own now broken family.

Too soon for my liking Jane decided that it was time to leave, and I reluctantly said goodbye to my aunt. Emily looked upset at Jane's decision to leave and could see from my expression my reluctance to leave. "would you rather stay for dinner?.." Emily exclaimed with a slight note of desperation "the kids and Sam would be here and I'm sure they would love to see you both!". Jane looked surprised at this, but shook her head with a small smile on her face. "I really think that it would be best if we leave ..we've put you out for long enough" Jane said with that same smile on her face. Emily looked upset and continued to plead with my mother. "It would be no trouble really it would be a pleasure to have you both… and I'm sure that Claire would like to meet her cousins wouldn't you Claire?" Emily said turning in my direction. I quickly nodded and smiled and turned pleadingly to Jane. "Careful Emily.." my mother whispered "I still haven't forgotten…". I looked dumbfounded at Jane; unable to understand what had caused this outburst. It had a similar reaction on Emily who looked as though she had been slapped, "Alright then.." she said sadly "maybe some other time then.." Emily trailed off uncertainly wringing her hands nervously. Jane nodded absent- mindedly and made her way out the door towards the car calling me after her.

I looked at Emily and smiled apologetically, "It was really nice to see you aunt Emily…I really would have loved to stay and meet everyone really…" I trailed off feeling genuinely upset that I couldn't stay and talk more. Emily smiled at me and had an odd expression on her face but quickly gave me a hug and released me when a horn was heard blaring outside. I glared in the direction of Jane's car, "Come back any time you like alright…." Emily started "Day or night I don't mind…I would really like to get to know my niece and for her to get to know her cousins" she said smiling again. I nodded and felt tears well up in my eyes, I always got tearful when I was upset which I silently cursed for the thousandth time. Emily smiled at me sympathetically as I made my way quickly to the car and got in before Jane screamed away.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight..

**Authors Note: I wasn't going to upload again tonight but I don't want people thinking that I'm selfish so I thought that I had best upload again...hehehehe So here you are it's short but there will be more tomorrow!! I need to get sleep I have a lecture at nine meaning a 730 wake up call!! Review please:D**

**Chapter Eight**

C.P.O.V

I stared at Jane as she drove somewhat erratically down the street, "What was that about Mam?" I asked incredulously "She only asked us to stay for dinner not a kidney!…I would have loved to have met everyone else!" I exclaimed. Jane scoffed "Don't be silly Claire you don't even know them ..besides I have a meeting in Seattle in the morning that I have to go to and I need to get back now and get some sleep!".

I was about to argue with her some more when I saw them. It was a big group of men all looking to be in there twenties, each with similar features and all quite handsome. They were talking and laughing at some joke that one of them had told. I felt drawn to them, I had to look at them, but then I realised that I wasn't looking at them at all, I was looking for one in particular. I shook my head unable to understand my sudden moment of insanity, but I continued to look. Then I saw him, the one that I was looking for, he was looking straight at me, a look of either anger or shock was wrought across his face. I wanted to get out and go to him ,but fought the urge; Jane looked at me and I realised that I had leaned as far forward in my seat as I could the seatbelt straining against me; she looked in the direction of where I was staring and I saw her jaw drop. Suddenly she accelerated dramatically, I could see the men looking at her, and I could see him reach out to me and I reached out automatically in response.

Jane shouted at me to sit back into my seat as I turned to look over my shoulder to see the figures of the men slowly growing smaller as my mother increased her speed. Hearing her curse under her breath I was suddenly brought back into sanity, what was wrong with me… why had I reacted like that?… I didn't even know him.

I looked up at Jane and she looked scared or panicked, maybe even both I thought. "Mam…" I asked hesitantly; she looked at me quickly and when she saw that I was back to my normal self she seemed to relax slightly. "It's alright Claire we'll be back to the hotel soon and we can get something to eat.." I couldn't think of anything else to say to her instead I choose to settle back into my seat and thought about what had just happened.

It wasn't logical to react like that when you saw a complete stranger, why had I wanted to get to him so badly?….I mean he was handsome .. very handsome but that was no excuse! I had seen plenty of handsome men around my sister and had never reacted like that before why now?

Before I knew it we were back home in the hotel, I stretched across my bed and stared at the ceiling, apparently Jane had decided not to talk to me after today's little encounter and had holed herself up in her room. Thinking about Emily and not having met her family I felt utterly despondent, I was now trying to ignore my irrational urge to go find the man that I saw.

I thought about Jane and her having said that she was going to a meeting tomorrow. I had heard her talk about that and realised that it was going to be in Seattle, as the realisation hit me I was already formulating plans to go back to La Push. Emily had said that I could go back anytime that I wanted didn't she? Anytime day or night…I intended to hold her to that. I was going to see my family. Just my family…….that man would have to be ignored….yes that particular urge would have to be suppressed.

**Authors Note: Happy now!!!! she saw Quil and it doesn't seem like he knows that Claire was around???!!??!?? I'll post tomorrow!! Goodnight and enjoy:D**


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight

**Authors Note: Thanks for all the reviews people!! The good and the angry...I'm glad you like it! In answer to some of the questions etc. As for Claire not suffering as much as Quil did when she left pay attention to her asthma...Claire suffered too she just didn't know why or that there was a reason. As for Jane...yeah she's kind of a cow to Claire most of the time but a lot of parents are like that to their kids but they don't mean to be harsh they think they know whats best it's just the way things go and look at it from her perspective she dosen't understand the werewolf thing and she finds out Sam is one and he hurt Emily when he was a relatively newborn, then Quil comes forward saying he has imprinted. Jane is for one freaked out about a sixteen year old claiming to have a connection of sorts to her toddler and finds out that he is only relatively new to being a werewolf therefore she thinks from what Sam said about newborns being a potential risk and is scared he will hurt Claire. Despite everything Jane in her own odd way loves Claire she is just slightly frightened of her I think she dosen't understand her Susan being more straight forward as far as she is concerned. So stop hating on Jane so much going to La Push was a huge deal for her baby steps... Apologies for that rant I'll add a chapter from Jane's POV at some stage to explain this better, but she is not evil just misguided! **

**Alright then I'm going to upload again today just not sure when! Review as always good,bad and the angry all welcome:D**

**Chapter Nine**

The next morning Jane stuck her head in the door, and told me that she was leaving. The night before had continued in silence so I was surprised that she had taken the time to come and inform me of her departure. I nodded my head in acknowledgment and rolled over onto my side pretending to go back to sleep. Jane seemingly satisfied by my response closed the door quietly and left the hotel suite. I quickly stood up and practically ran into the hall to get to the phone.

I picked up the receiver and was put through to reception, where the woman there informed me that there was a bus to La Push in the next hour from outside the bookstore at the end of the street. I thanked her and hung up, I knew the bookstore that she was talking about and ran into my room and rummaged through my wardrobe. I pulled on a pair of skinny grey jeans, and my brown radio-head t-shirt, I let my hair down and pinched my cheeks before grabbing my messenger bag and running out the door.

When I got to the bus stop the bus was about to pull away but stopped when the driver saw me waving franticly for it to stop. I jumped on paid the driver and sunk into the a seat behind the driver. I made to tie my laces which I had forgotten to do in my rush, they were my favourite red converse with green laces. Jane hated them but I loved them and wore them with just about everything, I smiled to myself at the memory of when Jane had first seen them. She really was a snob I thought to myself.

On the way there I scribbled nervously in my notebook , and thought about what my mother would do to me if she came back early, I shuddered at the thought. I had planned my trip to the best of my ability, I figured that she would be back at about nine that night and as it was ten thirty now I would have most of the day to spare. I could get the six o clock bus back and be there in plenty of time.

The bus journey seemed to take no time and I could feel myself growing nervous again at my sudden burst of courage. Within no time I was stepping off the bus and was making my way down the street to Emily's house. I walked slowly up the path several times stopping considering turning back before I got into trouble. But before I could consider this further I saw the door swing open, and my aunt step out, her grin was enough to put any doubts that I had to rest. I quickly walked up to the porch to meet her, Emily grabbed me in a one armed hug and led me into the house. "Claire honey I'm so glad you came by!" she exclaimed positively beaming at me, like yesterday I couldn't help but smile back at her. "Thanks" I managed to splutter out eventually feeling happier than I had in a long time. When I got inside I saw that Emily wasn't alone and there were people sitting around the kitchen table arguing with one another.

"I'm sorry did I come at a bad time?" I exclaimed feeling slightly foolish for intruding on them. Emily looked up at me as though I had said something ridiculous, "Of course not don't be silly it's just breakfast would you like some?" Emily started asking me but dragged me to the table before I could even answer. The people at the table hadn't even looked up at my entrance they were too embroiled in their argument. I couldn't really follow what they were talking about, I heard something that I thought sounded like cliff diving but I dismissed this notion thinking that if it had been that then they wouldn't speak about it so freely in front of their mother.

"Kids" Emily called in a quiet but authoritative voice, they all stopped and looked up at her and then quickly to me. "This is your cousin Claire she just came by to meet you all!" Emily said in answer to the confused expressions they all wore. The twins looked at each other in surprise and Hannah looked me up and down in wonder. "Hello.." I managed to choke out nervously, before blushing at their collectively prolonged stare, which made me shuffle nervously on the spot. "Kids" Emily said snapping them out of their daze, one of the twins grinned at me "Hey there cuz about time you paid us a visit where've you been hiding yourself?" I smiled in response and laughed along with Emily and the boy that had spoke to me. "The names Riley, the boy said in a friendly manner, I put my hand out to shake his, but he laughed stood up and caught me up in a bear hug. I laughed at this and soon settled myself into a chair following a hug from each of my cousins. Soon we were talking as though we had known each other all our lives and the twins were teasing me about my accent, "Quite posh aren't we!" Riley was saying in a ridiculous voice, and Caleb soon joined in, "Oh why la de dah!" Emily gave the boys an appraising look and rolled her eyes at them.

Most of the morning was spent mocking one another on the twins part, and for the rest of it we compared where we grew up. I talked about the private school that I attended, about my friends and what I had done in my spare time considering that I had grown up in the city. Then I listened in wonder as they told me about their pastimes, the cliff diving that I thought I had imagined hearing actually existed, about growing up on the reservation and going to school there. I was consumed in jealousy as they described how there house was like a halfway house friends and family always calling by…..I thought to myself about how we rarely had people over unless it concerned someone and there work. My parents thought that it was inappropriate to have people over when my grandmother was living there too. This was upheld vehemently unless it was for my parents business or of course a friend of Susan's, my friends were inappropriate therefore unwelcome. I eventually became rather quiet settling for listening, when they spoke of pets and games they would play as children, not having anything to contribute of my own. I could see Emily watching me and somehow knew that she knew what I was thinking.

"Right now then kids, I think that you have some chores to do?", Emily began looking around the table at her children, as they began to protest. "Hey hey hey!" she exclaimed "My house my rules!" was her defence to all the protests posed to her. One of the twins, I couldn't tell which protested that it wasn't every day that he got to meet his cousin, Emily had quickly responded that it wasn't every day that she had gotten the chance to meet her niece, the twin had quickly responded with a "touche", kissed his mother on the cheek before hitting his brother and running out the door, brother in pursuit. Hannah had laughed at them before deciding that she had better go referee them. When they had gone Emily turned to me and smiled one of her infectious smiles, "Now…I finally get to speak to my niece….welcome home Claire".


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight

**Authors Note: Alright then I'm going to be generous as I'm in a very good mood at the moment so I shall upload a few more chapters tonight one at a time...:D Please Review and the like I hate to do this but I'm almost guaranteed usually to upload when I get a review on a chapter it just makes me work faster so...:D (Quil will definetly be putting in an appearance tonight!) **

**Chapter Ten**

I smiled at Emily despite myself and knew that she understood what my household had been like in comparison to my cousins. "Thank you" I practically whispered before blushing. "You're absolutely welcome, I mean that, your family Claire and I know it must be strange for you to suddenly be thrown in the deep end like this but we are all so happy to have you back!".

The way that Emily spoke and the sincere expression made me believe that she genuinely was happy to have me in her life, but there was something else. An undertone in her voice, another reason for her being glad to have me back in La Push, I couldn't place it so put it down to imagination. I shrugged at Emily before answering, "Actually it feels pretty natural… surprisingly considering that I don't remember the last time I saw you!". Emily smiled again at this, I couldn't imagine the woman ever wearing anything but a smile on her face. She looked at me thoughtfully before continuing. "You don't remember anything from the last time you were in La Push?… when you were a kid I mean?". Emily asked me wearing an odd expression that immediately brought me back to my thinking about how she seemed to have an ulterior motive. It seemed harmless nothing bad but it was curious. I thought back to when I was a child trying to remember the last time I had seen Emily.

I shook my head slowly at Emily, "No… not really…" I started before I remembered something which startled me, it was a dream I used to have when I was a kid and looking around the room I realised that this was the setting. "Actually there was something.." I said whilst staring into the distance trying to remember the details exactly. Emily sat up at this rigid and alert in her seat. "Well its quite vague.. But I used to have a dream when I was a kid… it was in this room and I was playing cars with someone….and the person was important.. I was angry because they didn't play properly and then they left and I used to cry for a long time after they left…and every time I woke I would have another asthma attack…." I trailed off surprised at my remembering the exact details, Emily's eyes widened in surprise at this and she nodded thoughtfully before changing the subject to how I had come here.

I quickly looked down at my hands wringing them nervously as I spoke, "Well…here's the thing… she doesn't exactly know that I'm here…my Mam I mean, I got the bus here instead she's gone to Seattle for the day for some meeting". I trailed off nervously almost expecting her to send me back to the hotel, instead she nodded her head smiling a small smile though the corners of her mouth turned down, the only sign of disapproval. "I thought as much… for you to come back so soon isn't exactly something I would imagine Jane letting you do.." Emily trailed off, and looked at me and seemed to consider something for a moment, "Claire your mother and I might have our issues ….it wasn't always like that though we used to be pretty close ….when your mother left our parents weren't too happy but I still spoke with her …..what I'm trying to say is that I've seen the way you reacted to the way the kids talked about growing up and I'm guessing that your upbringing was a little different ….please don't think that I'm trying to criticise your mother in any way I know that she only does what she thinks is best for you ..even if she sometimes does get that wrong.." Emily shifted awkwardly in her seat, obviously worried that she may have gone too far.

I thought about what Emily had just said and nodded my head slightly at her in order to calm her until I could think of what to say in response. "Well ….you could say that I guess …. Mum didn't really approve of my friends or most of the things that I was …..and still am interested in for that matter…Susan's the favourite …..I don't mind I know that she cares about me in her own way but we aren't close at all … she wanted the perfect child made in her likeness kind of thing ….and like I said Susan was the favourite, and she was to my mother the perfect daughter". Emily looked at me sympathetically, but I knew that she knew what I was saying was true, she didn't try and argue with me that I was wrong or anything like that; in Emily I felt like I had finally found the mother I had always been missing.


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight

**Authors Note: Thanks for the reviews and PM's, and for all the ideas and opinions I haven't thought about getting someone to edit yet but I shall keep the offers in mind! As for the different things that were pointed out about Jane and Claire I shall answer them now... Firstly about Claire feeling an "ache", well I considered this but the thing is Claire was really young when she met Quil and all he is to her is a vague memory to her, her dream basically is the only memory she has of him and she doesn't even know that it is about him! Claire I feel won't notice a hollow feeling or an ache because she doesn't know that she is missing something yet, it's like Bella after Edward returns the ache isn't conscious until he returns! It will all reveal itself in time!**

**As for Jane giving Claire special treatment, to her Claire is different yes, she has a connection to the tribe when h Jane had go of her own as she doesn't want a part in it. But what Jane is doing in her mind is special treatment, she thinks that by telling Claire what to do all the time that she is protecting her, Susan only gets special treatment because she lives up to what her mother wants and responds well to her influence. Jane I believe dosen't even realise that she is giving Susan special treatment it just seems natural and Claire has never really said anything to her about it!**

**Finally about the spelling, I'm from Ireland and I use the English (Eire) version, and here we say Mam as opposed to Mum so sorry if I confuse people with that but old habits die hard! But just so you know MamMum**

**Thanks again for reviews and questions I reply to everything as you have probably noticed...So keep reviewing please! **

Chapter Eleven

The rest of my day in La Push was spent wandering around with the twins and Hannah who had all finished with their chores. Emily had, had to go visit a friend and do some shopping for dinner so hadn't joined us. I had been invited to dinner to meet my uncle Sam; according to Hannah her Dad had been very disappointed that he hadn't got the chance to meet me, I was surprised by this but smiled politely.

Hannah and the twins enjoyed my company from what I could tell, my lack of knowledge on the things they were talking about made them laugh. When they suggested going to the near-by 7-11 I just looked at them completely bewildered as to what this was, Caleb laughed heartily at this, his great booming laugh as infectious as his mother's smile. After quickly explaining what the 7-11 was their local store we quickly made our way there. The twins went in for something leaving Hannah and I standing outside, Hannah was talking about two of her friends and their complicated adolescent love life when I saw him again.

Like yesterday again my body went rigid, I wanted to go to him to touch him …. I needed to calm down Claire pull yourself together, I told myself. I watched him as he drove his, banged up old green truck, I wasn't sure if he had seen me or not yet so I watched him without fear of him noticing. He was very handsome, he had long black hair that reached to his shoulders, it was messy looking but I wanted to run my fingers through it, he had the deep russet skin tone of a Quileute; I could see through his white stained t-shirt that he had a toned figure and longed to touch him. I silently cursed myself for whatever irrational impulse was coming over me and tried to ignore the compulsion that was raging inside me. Hannah poking me in the shoulder quickly brought me back to reality, "Claire are you alright?", Hannah asked with a hint of amusement in her voice. I managed to tear my eyes away from the beautiful boy and saw that Hannah had a wide grin on her face. "Were you staring at him?" she asked me mischievously. I blushed furiously and looked at my feet before answering, "Just admiring the view" I said grinning back at her, trying to laugh off my moments of insanity about this boy.

The twins could be heard shouting inside the shop, something about how they wouldn't be necessary as he had nothing to fill them with. I wasn't sure what they were talking about but I thought that I would rather not know. The commotion from inside the shop, had not only drawn my attention and Hannah's, it had attracted the man's attention too. It's when he looked up to the shop that he saw me for the first time, I saw him freeze and stare at me, and watched as his mouth opened in what appeared to be shock. I blushed again under his intense stare, only for Hannah to interrupt my thoughts once again, this time I gratefully listened to what she had to say. "Now there's two of you….staring….just like Mam and Dad.." Hannah was looking at me oddly, just like Emily did earlier when she had been talking to me. Just then the twins came out of the shop, threats being thrown out the door after them, I thought to myself that my assumptions on there conversation in the shop were right and shook my head, typical boys!.

Before I could really think anything further Reilly looked across the street and saw the boy too, he smiled in recognition and waved calling to him, "Hey Quill!" I felt a familiar panic at the thought of the boy coming over and quickly began counting my breaths. The boy looked as though someone had hit him and looked around in confusion for a moment till he saw where the greeting was coming from. Reilly motioned for him to come over, and I saw Quill move hesitantly in our direction, he looked as nervous as I felt. When I saw him up close I realised that he looked younger from a distance, he wasn't a boy he was a man, and he was more than handsome; he was absolutely drop dead gorgeous. I silently cursed to myself, that was something Susan would say not me, surely I cold think of a better way to describe him, but words seemed to fail me when I was near him.

Quill didn't look directly at me at all, seemingly attempting to pretend that I wasn't there, that is until Reilly with what I saw was a look of pride on his face introduced me. "Hey Quill we'd like you to meet our cousin, all the ways from London, Claire!" If it hadn't been for my utter sense of being mesmerised by Quill I would have been touched at the emotion in Reilly's voice. Quill for the first time looked directly at me, and if I had had difficulty breathing before it was nothing compared to now, I stopped breathing entirely under his stare. Quill seeming to realise that there was people around him and in keeping with manners put out his hand in offer of a handshake. I quickly took his hand, when our skin touched it amazed me at the reaction my body had. For one thing his skin burned against mine as though it was on fire, my heart accelerated and beat almost painfully against my chest; most amazingly of all my breathing completely returned to normal. This realisation would have set off another one in sheer surprise but Quills presence seemed to sedate it somehow. "Nice to meet you…" I finally managed to stutter.


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight not me!

**Authors Note: I just read the reviews thank you for them all:D I also looked over my last authors note and considering that I'm far too lazy to go and fix it with my slow Internet connection, I shall apologise for the appalling grammar here! I rushed and didn't read over it the last time and I am perfectly aware that I made a complete mess of it but I think you all got the general idea of what I was trying to say anyway! So I thought since I'm on a roll here I'd keep going for a little while and here is Quil's point of view!!(It's one of my favourite chapters) Review please:D :D**

Chapter Twelve

Q.P.O.V

Sam had been avoiding me. I had said as such to Jacob and Embry but they had dismissed this as some sort of paranoia on my part. But I was sure of it, even though Sam had now managed to stop phasing into a wolf and was growing older with Emily; and Jacob had finally take control of the pack. Sam was an immovable fixture. But I had noticed that lately he had been strange around me, not staying in the same room as me for too long, avoiding speaking with me and making eye contact. In the end I had decided to ignore it; well Jacob had gotten so annoyed at my distraction that he had ordered me to ignore it.

At first I panicked and thought that it was something to do with Claire, but everyone had quickly pointed out that Sam would most definitely have told me if something had of happened her. Instead I had gotten back to my work, all my work the pack work of watching over the tribe in my werewolf form and in Jacob's garage. I was now the beta of the pack, which meant more responsibility for me but what was better it meant more of a distraction for me.

For years I had found that I couldn't sleep well at night, all after Claire had left for London. I had tried everything from sleeping pills to herbs but nothing had worked thanks to my body burning them up with my temperature reaching higher than boiling point. I had eventually found that the only way that I could sleep was by working flat out until I could barely keep my eye lids open any longer.

It was evening time and Jacob, Embry, Jared and I were standing by the wall outside of the garage when I finally realised what it was that Sam had been hiding from me. A deep blue, jaguar was driving down the main street towards us. All of us looked up as it approached, I could see the guys looking at the car in admiration; at first I had looked up at it too just interested in the car itself but that then I had felt it. A tug in the end of my stomach, I felt my world turn and I had to stare at the car, I had to know who was in the car, I had to be near to them. Then I saw her and she saw me too, Claire … my Claire… only now she was all grown up and she was beautiful. I stared at her and was suddenly furious at Sam for hiding this from me, as the car moved closer towards us I reached out involuntarily and saw that she did too. That's when her mother looked and saw me, before any of us could even blink she tore away.

I stood there in stunned silence for a few moments arm still out-stretched staring after where the car had turned off around the corner. After a minute or two the others seemed to notice my sudden bout of madness, they had been too caught up in talking about the jaguar at first to pay any attention to me; it was when Jacob asked my opinion on it that they noticed me. "Quill ….what's wrong with you?" Jacob asked, a note of concern in his voice. I shook my head and gaped at him with my mouth open, how could he not have understood, she had been there….. Fourteen years of sketchy reports on what Claire had been up too in London had reached me, but now….now she was back; and she was beautiful, more so than I could have even begun to imagine. A sharp slap across my back forced me back into reality, I saw that Embry had hit me with impatience at my prolonged staring.

"I have to find Sam…" I stated quickly before making a movement towards my green Chevy truck, but before I got very far Jacob stopped me in my tracks. "Please Jake …just let me by alright I don't have time to explain.." I mumbled cryptically clearly irritating Jacob. "Well make time then!" Jacob retorted stubbornly, I scowled at him, couldn't he realise that he was stopping me from being near my Claire, I would go to hell and back to get near to Claire. "Claire was in that car…" I replied, and without even waiting for a response walked by him. I had to find Sam, he had a lot of explaining to do….

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"SAM" I roared, as I made my way up the path to his house, which had become like a second home to me over the years. I could hear a shuffling sound inside the house a small squeal and then sound of saucepans falling against tiles. If I hadn't been raging I would have felt bad for frightening Emily, it had to be Emily because Sam could set fire to water, and wouldn't be allowed near the kitchen. The front door swung open and Sam stuck his head out in mock surprise, "Quill…..I thought I heard you!" Sam said with a forced casual voice, and a guilty expression on his face. I fumed, how could he do this to me, not tell me that my love, my life , my reason for being that had been denied to me for the last fourteen years, was here in La Push. I paused and concentrated on my breathing, I hadn't phased in anger in years and I certainly didn't intend to loose my carefully crafted self-control now.

Sam stepped out onto the porch, and spoke something in the door behind him, I was about to start giving him a piece of mind when he motioned for me to follow him. This distracted me for a moment and I followed Sam out to the back of the house, Sam walked steadily towards the forest; I could see his expression was nervous and he carefully avoided looking at me. However I didn't falter for a moment intent on getting the answers that I had been wanting to here.

After a few moments in the forest Sam looked up having been staring at his feet for the time that we had been there, "So Quill.." Sam stated pathetically trying to sound cheerful and curious as to what had made me angry, his little pretence heightened my anger, "Cut the crap Sam!" I ordered silencing any further attempts from Sam in acting innocently oblivious to my anger. Sam swallowed loudly and looked up guiltily at me, his expression was one of anguish. "Sam she was here…. Claire… my Claire was here in La Push…" I found it incredibly difficult for me to get the words out, they caught in my throat as did my suppressed sobs, I felt like bursting into tears; torn at this betrayal but more so at my lost chance of getting to spend time with Claire. Claire's mother Jane's expression seemed to tell me that I wouldn't see her again anytime soon. Sam looked torn at my expression and the sound of emotion in my voice; and looked away quickly before looking away and then speaking.

"It was the only way Quill … please understand that.." Sam began but before he could finish I was shouting at him, "THE ONY WAY SAM…WHAT THE HELL'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN!!!!….CLAIRE MY WORLD THAT I HAVEN'T SEEN IN FOURTEEN YEARS WAS HERE AND YOU THINK THAT IT WAS BEST?…" I took a pause for breath before continuing again "HOW….AND WHO COULD THAT POSSIBLY BE BEST FOR….YOU OF ALL PEOPLE SHOULD UNDERSTAND HOW I FEEL HOW COULD YOU KEEP ME FROM HER!!." I finished breathlessly now not even trying to hold back the stinging tears that were freely running down my face.

Sam looked tortured by my reaction and I could see that he was close to tears himself, and felt a bitter satisfaction at his pain. "Quill please just listen to what I have to say to you will you?.." Sam pleaded with me in a quiet strangled voice, Sam took my silence as being a consent to continue and carried on; "Quill….this was all down to Jane…she only agreed to come under the condition that you weren't going to be near Claire ….and before you say anything about how you could have stayed nearby and watched from the sidelines…but Quill I know what it's like when you've spent time away from them you loose control when you see them… and even if you had managed to contain yourself that's not to say that Claire could have….this was for you Quill….we want to gain Jane's trust slowly and let her see that there is no danger here for Claire…" Sam looked around for a minute trying to find the words to continue before starting again. "Jane was the least horrified at what we told them…seriously Quill I think that you might have a chance of winning her around if you just do as we say…please.." Sam finished pleadingly.

I looked at Sam sceptically, and then felt deflated at what he had said and swallowed, feeling my throat tighten at the movement. Trying to regain my composure I put my hand against a nearby tree and leaned against it heavily, only shifting when I heard the tree groan slightly at the strain. I looked up at Sam having stared at my shoes having contemplated what Sam had said, "I see.." was all I could manage to say and that was at a struggle; and I did, I was loathe to admit it but I could understand what Sam had been saying and decided there and then to play by whatever rules he made ….anything that meant that I could be with my Claire…I sighed at the thought.


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight not me

**Authors Note: Thanks for the reviews!! Yeah I know I feel bad for Quil too and al I keep thinking is that I keep putting him through this...but that's just my freaky imagination and I just type what it tells me too so :O Anyways I shall give you more Quil and I hope you enjoy it**

Chapter Thirteen

Q.P.O.V

I didn't sleep that night, it wasn't even worth trying, every time I closed my eyes all I could see was Claire, her raven black hair reflecting the sun, her pale smooth skin, and her eyes… those shocking electric blue eyes that hadn't changed at all over the years. Over the years I had tried to imagine what I thought Claire would look like as she grew up, she was always beautiful in my minds eye, then again she would never be anything but beautiful to me. But seeing her and seeing her beauty had taken my breath away, I had never even come close to how she truly looked. I was glad that my werewolf senses overlapped into my human form, I couldn't have imagined seeing such detail from a distance otherwise. Thinking of this made me curious as to how the rest of Claire's body looked; at once I pounded my fist uselessly against the arm of my couch. Claire was only sixteen…just sixteen, old enough to look like a woman but she wasn't quite there yet. I groaned at the thought, fourteen years without any female companionship; any woman who tried to be my friend reminded me of Claire and made me feel immediately guilty, I soon gave up on trying to lead a normal life. Without Claire I was nothing.

When it was bright enough for it to be called morning-time, I quickly left my apartment and left for the garage. When I got there no one else was there and decided to do a clean up. Letting myself in with my own key I quickly made my way over to the cleaning supplies, which consisted of a sink, mop, bucket, a few rags and towels. Filling the bucket with water I mopped down the floors and while they dried I wiped the windows which were stained somewhat from exhaust fumes and dust. When there were no more windows to clean I made my way over to the office, which was more of a canteen; everyone that worked there congregated there usually on their unofficial lunch hours and gossiped in what reminded me as a similar fashion to old women.

In the middle of sorting out the piles of forms and receipts on the table I heard the familiar purr of an engine in the yard. Sure enough Jacob strolled in a few minutes later, looking in wonder around the now immaculately clean garage. Without even looking to see who had cleaned Jacob shouted out "Thanks Quill!" I laughed despite myself; I was the only one of the men there that had any concept of how to clean anything thoroughly. Of course they treated cars like they were somehow Godly and cleaned them immaculately, but when faced with the prospect of a mop and bucket it was met with utter confusion; I was always surprised when they knew which end of the mop the handle was.

"So Quill….how did things go with Sam?" Jacob asked somewhat hesitantly whilst leaning against the door frame of the office and eating an apple. I looked up at him and shook my head whilst frowning, luckily Jake just smiled sadly at me, not pursuing the matter further. That's what I liked about Jake, he knew exactly what to say to people when they needed someone to talk to and knew equally when it was best not to speak. I smiled back at him to show my appreciation to him, but Jacob had turned away from me and was gazing out the door towards the ocean, which was only a few hundred yards away.

"Jules is coming by today….if you want I could tell her not to…", Jacob said apprehensively whilst staring apparently transfixed at his fingernails. I grimaced to myself at the thought; of course I loved Julia as much as the others, but now wasn't the right time for me to have to see her and Jacob together; but I wasn't going to deny Jacob the pleasure of seeing her, he rarely got the chance. Julia was the girl that Jacob had imprinted on almost two years after Bella had left, she had been ten at the time, and was a local girl. Jacob had been shocked but we were all delighted and soon enough Bella was just a distant memory to him, painful but bearable in comparison to the pain he would feel if something were to happen to Julia. Julia was now in university in Harvard studying law; Jacob was helping her parents pay for this and Julia would come back whenever she could. Unlike Emily and Sam who could restrain themselves around others Julia and Jacob were not quite so subtle; the long absence made them slightly desperate to be near one another when they got to spend time together. I didn't think I could bare it, but thought that I could find something that would require me to leave for a while when the time came. "Jacob don't be silly of course she should come by your not the only one that would like to see Jules it's been ages!" I exclaimed with as much enthusiasm I could muster, which wasn't much. Jacob not entirely convinced thanked me but smiled gratefully at me.

Soon everyone had arrived and was working, I could let my mind wander back to thoughts of Claire even though she was never far from my mind at any time. But at least when we were all supposed to be absorbed in our work, it meant that no one really took the time to notice that my mind wasn't exactly on the job. I was finding it incredibly difficult to focus on what I was supposed to be doing, every time I made a mistake and the new trainee mechanic Stanley noticed and pointed it out, I would pretend that it was a challenge and praise him for his observations and curse myself silently for my own stupidity.

At about one o clock there was a squeal heard from the yard, Jacob who had been outside at the time gathering together some tyres for a Celica that had been brought in, that was in need of a complete over-hall; which was exactly what the owner had wanted; Jacob could now be heard laughing. I didn't need to look up from what I was doing to see that Julia had arrived and that Jacob and her were kissing like there was no tomorrow. I heard one of the guys wolf-whistle at them and continued to work still failing to look up at the spectacle of Jacob and Julia. Another squeal from somewhere between my waist and my left shoulder indicated Julia's presence beside me; I looked down and braced myself for the hug that followed, I lifted Julia off the ground and spun her around; just like I had when she was still a child. I could see Jacob gazing on from the side, his eyes and expression entirely peaceful and filed with pure undulated love.

I blanched at his expression and quickly thought of a reason for my impending departure; as I had thought earlier this morning I would not be able to watch Jacob and Julia fawning over each other without suffering myself. "How's about I go out and pick up some coffee and something to eat?" I offered hoping that no one would realise my true reasons for wanting to leave the garage. Everyone seemed to think that this was a good idea and Julia quickly had made a list in her tidy handwriting of things that I needed to get. As I was leaving I thought that I saw a fleeting look of understanding on Jacob's face but he turned away quickly, to amuse Julia rather than look at me further.

Since Jacob was ignoring it then I decided that I would too, and quickly made my way to my truck. The store was about ten minutes walk from the garage but some of the guys had wanted ice-cream; and since were-wolves ran a temperature of about 108 degrees, it wasn't very easy to hold ice-cream without it melting. On the way there my thoughts were as ever on Claire and I didn't really pay particular attention to anything else as I pulled up across the street from the store. I could hear some shouting from inside the 7-11, but that's not what made me look up; it was the tug at the end of my stomach that forced me to turn my head in the direction of the store yard. I knew that she was there before I even looked up and felt the irrational urge to run across the street and grab her, clutching the steering wheel for a moment seemed to help me concentrate.

I could see her now and she was watching me too, no she was staring at me; her expression was that of curiosity and obvious confusion, she didn't seem to know what to do with herself. I felt a sudden surge of pity for her, it was damn near impossible for me to bare this, but Claire had the same problem and didn't even know what was happening. That's when I realised that I could see Claire, all of Claire; the last time that I had seen her she had been sitting in a car which tore by. Claire was even more beautiful than I had remembered, she was tall, slender her hair reaching down almost to her waist; she was in a word perfect. Just then one of Sam's twins saw me from across the street and beckoned to me to come to them. Biting my lip with nerves I walked slowly across the street, Claire seemed to tense at my approach so I didn't stand near her.

Claire didn't look at me when I was there even though I was willing her to look at me, just to see her eyes that were still the intense blue that I remembered so well. When I was introduced to her officially though she looked up at me hesitantly; my immediate reaction was to offer her my hand to shake. Claire looked uncertain for a moment and her breathing which had been strained until then ceased entirely, before she reached out and took my hand.

The effect was immediate, it was an overwhelming sensation; I wanted to take her right now and run … she was mine and no one else's mine and mine alone… Claire looked up at me in surprise now for the first time; her breathing sedated to a natural rhythm; Claire grown up at last almost a woman, but not quite there yet…I felt a slight shudder run through me, before I forced myself to let go of her hand.


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: Jane is mine!!!! As are Susan, Brian, Grandma, Hannah, Caleb, Stanley, Julia, and Riley...Stephenie Meyer owns everybody else!!!

**Authors Note: Thank you for reviewing glad you liked the chapter:D Meant to say in the last chapter that I put a link on my profile into what I imagine Quil's truck looks like, keep in mind that it ought to be a minty green I just couldn't find the colour I was looking for!!! So enjoy and review please:D**

Chapter Fourteen

Q.P.O.V

Once Claire and I had released each other I noticed that Riley, Caleb and Hannah were all looking between Claire and myself incredulously. Claire was now staring at her feet intensely, blushing a furious red which made me want to reach out and stroke her cheek. "Quill…" the twin that I now recognised as Riley began, "what the…", Caleb elbowed his brother sharply but discreetly before Reily could say another word. I gave them both a pleading look which from what I could tell went unnoticed by the girls but the boys seemed to understand.

A broad smile stretched across Riley's face, who looked at me in amazement, "Hey Quill… why don't you come by our place for a while…I think that Dad was looking for you earlier ..he should be home by now" Riley finished looking mischievously at me. This was the last thing that I needed, Riley in particular being observant enough to realise that I had imprinted on Claire. I could only imagine how they saw this, there adolescent imaginations getting the better of them; I would have to speak to Sam about it. For that matter I would have a lot to talk to Sam about; having mentioned him I realised that yet again I hadn't been informed of Claire coming to visit and was fuming silently.

"I'll call over later maybe… I have to pick up everyone's lunch first before I do anything else" I trailed off pathetically. I did not want to be around the twins, what if they let something that they shouldn't have slip to Claire?…Come to think of it what if I left them to their own devices would they say something then?. Before I could finish thinking of worrying any further, I saw Emily walking up the street, I saw her eyes widen at the scene ahead of her, and her pace quicken.

"Kids!" Emily called before she had reached us, everyone but Claire turned to look at her, she seemingly did not recognise Emily's voice quite yet. Upon seeing me watching her, she blushed furiously again and I smiled to myself at her obvious embarrassment but more so that she appeared to be struggling as much as me. Whilst Claire struggling with something bothered me to no ends, it also meant that she had if somewhat confused, feelings for me which despite all my inner protests had me grinning like a Cheshire cat.

Emily was soon in the yard and was quickly studying the situation, her immediate reaction was to give the twins a warning glance; their beaming expressions wrought with evident excitement showed her that they had figured out about Claire and I. Hannah on the other hand seemed to be more interested in teasing Claire slightly over her evident embarrassment, yet I couldn't help but get the feeling that she had a similar idea if not fully developed yet.

"So kids I'm on my way home to get dinner ready, how's about walking me there?" Emily asked in voice that was more demanding than questioning. Turning to me she smiled "I'm sure that Quill here has to get back to work…and he's coming to dinner later too so you can talk to him then!" Emily exclaimed with a smile on her face. I looked up surprised at this but Emily's expression made me nod in reply; the twins looked between us all looking undeniably excited, I was praying that they would keep there mouths shut; everything was so delicate at the moment, and I did not want my only chance with Claire to be ruined by some immature boys.

"About four thirty alright Quill?" Emily asked without really expecting an answer, again I nodded my head instead of replying, not entirely trusting myself to speak. Emily smiled in acknowledgment and quickly herded the twins, Hannah and Claire off in the direction of their house. Before she left Claire looked up at me shyly and smiled, surprised but delighted at this small act, I just stared back at her stupidly. This seemed to make Claire even more embarrassed before she blushed again and raced off after her family.

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When I had eventually gone back to work and handed over the food, I was immensely grateful when Jacob seeing my obvious frustration told me to go home for the rest of the day. This suited me perfectly and I rushed home to get ready for dinner; usually I would never have made an effort going to Sam's place for dinner but tonight felt different to me. I wasn't just going to dinner I was also going to get to spend some time with Claire; the thought of a potential confrontation with Claire's mother especially spurred me into making myself look presentable.

Looking through my wardrobe however I was slightly worried, I had next to nothing to wear. Embry had a habit of borrowing my shirts and never returning them and as I searched through the hangers all I could find was a white shirt which had a button missing in the centre. I cursed at this annoyance before deciding to wear it open with a t-shirt inside of it; I again had some difficulty locating the t-shirt I wanted, my wardrobe was similar to a land-fill. Everything was thrown in pell-mell without even a second thought. Eventually after about a half an hour's searching I found my deep blue "Queens Of The Stone Age" t-shirt and threw it on, I pulled on a pair of black cords too and stood back to see what it looked like before glancing into the mirror; I was happy with the overall effect and grabbed my keys before heading out the front door.


	15. Chapter 15

Disclaimer: Twilight is owned by Stephenie Meyer

**Authors Note: Sorry about the delay all explained in my note on chapter 19 of What Came Next. Thanks for the reviews and alerts etc. Keep them coning please:D**

**Quil and Claire conversation requests are being given a lot but they will follow in time, Claire is shy so don't expect great conversations just yet!! But they will come!!!**

Chapter Fifteen

C.P.O.V.

The surprise I felt at having my breathing return to me so easily, made me stare up at Quill, before I blushed at his stare and pulled away from him. I couldn't understand the overwhelming emotions that I felt when I was around him, why should I want to touch him to lunge at him like I did right now. The best option was to try ignore Quill while he was around me, he was much older than me and wouldn't be interested in an awkward kid like me.

As a result of my furious thinking I didn't even notice that Quill was talking to the twins, there words were incoherent to me I was so absorbed in my own thoughts. I knew that there was something odd about the way they were all acting towards each other, and like my feelings for Quill I couldn't quite figure out what it was or where it stemmed from. It was then that I noticed that Hannah had been trying to gain my attention, once I had acknowledged her she began silently asking me about Quill and teasing me about having a crush on him. I grimaced at Hannah's teasing and blushed, horrified at the thought that if Hannah who didn't really know me yet knew that I had a crush on Quill, then how obvious was it to Quill himself.

A voice interrupted my thoughts, it sounded familiar to me but I couldn't place it, I didn't look up for a moment or two as I got a suddenly horrified feeling that it was my mother that was going to be standing in front of me. However when I realised that I wasn't being screamed at, it occurred to me that it was obviously going to be Emily. Looking up I saw that it really was Emily, and for the first time I started paying attention to what was being said; Quill was being invited to dinner…I gulped nervously a whole evening being spent with the God like Quill. I blushed again and heard Hannah giggle beside me. Before I knew what was happening Emily was ushering us along towards her house, and without thinking about it I looked up at Quill and seeing him looking back at me I smiled; I blushed immediately, when I saw that Quill was just staring at me with an odd expression on his face.

"Claire!" Hannah called holding back from the rest of her family as I ran to keep up with them. "Sorry…"I panted reaching into my bag automatically for my inhaler only to realise that I didn't need it. Not for the first time I was surprised by my asthmas sudden decision to give me a rest. "No worries…you alright?" Hannah asked curiously peering at me with a small grin on her face. I blushed again, "Yes I'm fine…was just..". Before I finished Hannah interrupted me "Just eyeing up one of the hottest guys on the reservation" , Hannah glanced dreamily off into the distance before continuing her commentary; "Pity he doesn't date…". Up to this point I had being trying to feign a lack of interest but my head automatically snapped up at this, causing Hannah's grin to turn into a full blown smile. I cursed myself for the involuntary reaction, I shouldn't encourage Hannah's teasing or imaginings…..no matter how true they were.

It was too late now to pretend that I hadn't been interested so I tried to look what I hoped was only mildly interested; or at least interested to a point where it would seem acceptable. Hannah studied my face for a moment and I could see her smile fall slightly in doubt, but she seemed to dismiss what she was thinking before she continued; "Well I mean it's not from lack of trying, most girls have tried to go out with him at one stage or another and he just tells them that he wants to be their friend…a few of my friends older sisters have tried but they say that he didn't seem in the slightest bit interested…" Hannah continuously glanced up at me to see what reaction I was having to what she was saying and I kept a permanent thoughtful expression on my face. "Well here's the thing though if you ask me….I think that he is waiting for someone special… must have got tired of his old lifestyle.." at this Hannah sighed and looked ahead, obviously enticing me into asking her what she was talking about. I tried to pretend that I didn't have any interest yet again but this time I couldn't help it; "What old life do you mean?". Hannah positively beamed at me before she answered, and I couldn't help but smile back at her. "You see when he was a teenager he had a bit of a reputation for being a womaniser, cocky you know and had dated most of the girls in the reservation….then he went through this depression apparently for about a year or so and when he got over it he didn't date anymore.." Now that the subject had turned slightly darker Hannah seemed taken aback at her own story and didn't speak about it again.

"Claire, walk with me will you?" Emily suddenly cut into my thoughts, forcing me to disband all the theories which were raging in my mind. Hannah looked surprised at this and quickly walked ahead to her brothers where they promptly began to argue. Emily fell into step with me and smiled at me kindly, "Are you having a good day so far?", I looked up and smiled at Emily in return, seemingly pleased by my response she continued "I see that Hannah was letting you know all about the local gossip back there…you really shouldn't pay attention to her, all of that happened before she was even born!". This surprised me, of all the conversation starters this was the last thing that I had expected, and what did she mean that this had happened before Hannah was born….exactly how old was Quill anyway.

"Oh I see…. Emily just out of curiosity how old is Quill … it's just that you said that he was a teenager before Hannah was even born and he doesn't look that old…". I blushed despite myself, now Emily would think that I had a crush on Quill too! Emily looked away from me almost as though she were deciding whether or not to tell me, "I'm not sure exactly but old enough… you should probably ask him yourself…I'm not entirely sure of his exact age…" Emily finished cryptically making me all the more curious, but I didn't want to push it. Emily looked at me then and there was a somewhat pained expression on her face, I wanted to give her a hug right then to see if I could restore the smile which I was growing to love so much. I couldn't understand what was causing her to look at me like that and it was making me increasingly nervous; my change in breathing seemed to snap Emily out of whatever she was thinking about.

"Claire could you please do me a favour…" Emily asked apprehensively "I know it may seem odd and you haven't known me for very long either but…" I interrupted Emily before she could continue, surprised at my own sudden bravery; "Whatever you want Emily all you have to do is ask.." I smiled reassuringly, which seemed to ease Emily before she continued. "Well Claire its just that your mother wouldn't be to happy with you coming down here today so I assume that your not going to tell her about this particular visit..". I blushed at this and inclined my head in assent. Emily laughed sadly, "I understand Claire and it's fine by me if you come here without your mother knowing, I probably shouldn't condone it but your mother is being unreasonable and she is coming around so it shouldn't matter too much…." Emily wasn't making much sense and seemed to be trying to convince herself more than me; "…It would be better if you don't tell your mother about the visit…and don't mention Quill..". This surprised me more than anything else that she had said, I could understand her not wanting Jane stopping me from seeing them, but Quill…. What had he to do with anything?. A brief memory of my mother driving like a demon out of La Push upon seeing Quill and I staring at one another sprung to mind, but I quickly dismissed the notion as ridiculous. "I just don't think that you're mother would approve of you spending time with someone older than you is all" Emily finished lamely, making me think that I wasn't going to hear anything more about it no matter how far I pushed.

Looking around I soon realised that we were back at Emily's and I grew quiet soon upon seeing a large looming figure standing on Emily's porch. The man looked like an older version of Quill, beautiful in his own way but paled in comparison; without knowing how I immediately knew who he was.


	16. Chapter 16

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight Stephenie Meyer does:D

**Authors Note: Apologies again for the very sparse uploading thats going on at the moment!! Next week crazy busy but when its over I shall be free to write more:D That goes for my other fan-fiction too!! Right I'll upload two chapters today to last you all for the weekend as I'm away from Internet access as usual!!**

**I do have a favor to ask of people who read this specifically anyone from America! I have some family from America but I don't talk to them that often and it would be strange if I randomly started ringing them asking odd questions...but I need someone that I can ask questions about how things work over in the States because I have no idea!! I have wrote some things but I don't want to upload them until I know if it can work...cryptic I know... So if you would like to help me then PM me please I would really appreciate it!! **

**Thanks as usual for all the reviews much appreciated keep them coming:D One question though what does 411 mean? (see what I mean about being slightly clueless!) **

**Alright then enjoy:D**

Chapter Sixteen

"Uncle Sam.." I whispered surprised by my own voice and the sound of conviction in it. Emily nodded and smiled, letting me know that my assumptions were correct. I looked up at Sam standing on the porch, he smiled at me and I immediately smiled back at him, this family was so friendly and happy it was intoxicating. When we were closer Sam bounded down off the porch and went to Emily, kissing her lightly on both sides of her face before kissing her softly on the lips. I blushed at this show of affection, unused to this type of display with my own parents, especially now that they were divorced.

Once Sam had finished greeting Emily he turned to me and he was beaming at me, I smiled back at him before he grabbed me in a bone-crushing hug, which lifted me off the ground. "Claire look at you….I can't believe that you the same little girl who used to cry when I cut her toast into triangles instead of squares..". I stared at Sam shocked at this and blushed furiously which caused him to laugh. I could tell that I was going to like my uncle Sam as much as the rest of them.

Soon we were all inside and we were talking as Emily bustled around the kitchen with Caleb helping her. I had offered to help but was told to relax and get to know Sam; I was surprised that Caleb was in the kitchen with Emily. Apparently he wanted nothing more than to become a chef when he left school, and worked part-time in a restaurant in Forks. Sam spoke to me about school and what London was like, he asked about Susan and what she was up to but upon seeing my reluctance on talking about her Sam ended that particular conversation. I noticed that he had been careful to avoid any reference to my parents and I was more than willing to avoid the subject.

"Claire do you want to come see my room?" Hannah asked from the door leading into the hall, I could see the stairs behind her. I was curious about the rest of the house so I nodded and smiled in approval. The rest of the house was much the same as downstairs, wood was running through the entire house, there were three bedrooms upstairs and two bathrooms, one for everyone and one in Sam and Emily's room. Hannah's room was right beside her parents room whilst the boys were further down the hall; I couldn't help but get the feeling that Sam had something to do with this, and sure enough Hannah went on to tell me that she had only moved in there a few weeks ago. From what I could gather the incentive was that she could redecorate the entire room the way she liked it without parental input.

"So… what do you think?" Hannah asked me upon entering the room, a nervous but proud smile on her face. I was taken aback for a moment, the room was nothing like any bedroom I had ever had; Hannah had a large single bed which could fit two people easily in the centre of the room against the wall. The bed appeared to be mahogany, there was a green pine wardrobe which looked like it came from somewhere in the French countryside, she had a heavy looking old oak desk, which had shelves and drawers inbuilt with an old computer on top of it. The windows in the room which were on either side of the bed had deep window-sills which had numerous cushions piled into it which looked extremely comfortable; the window on the left of the bed was against the back wall with the headboard, and the other window was facing the bed from the wall to the right of the bed. Looking around Hannah had placed numerous paintings and posters all over her walls which suited the room perfectly. The walls were an orange red colour which worked well with the furniture as well as the art work. "Hannah it's lovely…really nice!" I said genuinely impressed by the room. The room looked lived in, my rooms had always been kept spotless, in a way that it looked like something from a magazine.

Hannah beamed at me before moving toward a dresser that had been hidden from my view by the wardrobe, and grabbed an array of things from a basket on top of it. "Would you like me to do your make-up?" Hannah asked shyly, I was surprised by this and automatically reached up to touch my face in response. "Why what's wrong with my face?" I asked stupidly, Hannah laughed at me, "Nothing is wrong with your face...I just thought that with Quill coming over that you might like to wear some make-up.." Hannah finished slyly. My mouth fell open at this, I could tell that Hannah was going to be persistent about this, "Umm…I don't really wear make-up…never have.." I trailed off limply unable to think up a good excuse in my defence. "Nonsense! I'll put it on for you…and even if Quill doesn't notice it at least we can have some girl time!" Hannah exclaimed excitedly. I shuddered slightly at this, I liked Hannah she was a nice girl, a little over-eager for my liking but I liked her all the same; but a girly afternoon was not something that appealed to me at all. The last thing I wanted anyone to see, let alone Quill was me painted like a clown or something equally ridiculous. Before I could protest though Hannah pushed a stool from behind me into my knees forcing me to sit down, and attacked me with the make-up in her hand. All I could do was sit back and hope for the best.

After what seemed like ages of being poked and prodded by foreign looking instruments, Hannah finally stood back and smiled at her work. "That suits you …you should really try wearing this more often.." Hannah was looking at me oddly, and I couldn't understand why. Hannah handed me a mirror then to let me see exactly what she had done, and even I had to admit that I looked good, more than good I would even go as far as to say pretty. Hannah had made my usually pale skin which was relatively blemish free look almost porcelain, my eyes were dark and smoky, and my lips which were always pouting looked an even deeper shade of red than usual. I had to admit that I was glad of having let Hannah do this, irrational as it was I wanted Quill to think that I was pretty…as if he would.

"Thanks Hannah your right it is quite nice…maybe you could tell me how you did it?" I asked trying to distract Hannah into thinking about anything but Quill. Happily Hannah launched into a long discussion on how she had applied the make-up leaving me to my own thoughts, occasionally being required to nod my head but nothing more. Hannah then went on to how she wanted to be an interior designer when she got older, which I thought was probably the reason why she had invited me to se her room as well as the make-up session. I was not for the first time today surprised by one of my cousins, they were all quite talented at there own things which made me feel very plain and ordinary in comparison.

While we were talking a shout was heard from downstairs "GIRLS DINNER'S READY, WHY DON'T YOU COME ON DOWN NOW" Sam called up the stairs. Hannah quickly stood up and headed towards the door; pausing at the door waiting for me to follow. On our way down the stairs I felt that now more familiar tug at the end of my stomach letting me know that Quill had arrived.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen

C.P.O.V

I stopped on the stairs for a moment my left leg suspended in mid-air as it was reaching for the next step, why was Quill's presence having this effect on me. I had, had crushes before but I had never acted like this before; I hadn't even heard Quill knock on the door or his voice and I somehow knew he was there. As if on queue there was a loud knock on the front door could be heard.

"Claire…are you alright?" Hannah called nervously from the end of the stairs, she was looking at me uncertainly as though she thought I had lost my mind. I shook my head to regain some semblance of normality "Yes…sorry I got a little wrapped up in my own world there for a minute!" I laughed as lightly as I could to redeem myself but thought that it sounded weak so quickly ended it. Hannah smiled seemingly placated by this, and started talking about how she would constantly day dream in class and not hear the teacher talking to her. I stopped listening and made my way rather nervously down the stairs, I was glad that Hannah was so easily swayed in her thoughts; apart from the whole Quill thing she seemed to prefer believing what I told her than anything else. Then again it might just be the case that she only listened and choose to believe what she wanted.

I could hear Quill talking to Sam now in the kitchen, Hannah had walked ahead leaving me standing in the hall, afraid to enter the room; however before I could do anything Riley came from behind me and smirked at me before grabbing my hand and dragging me into the kitchen after him. "No need to be scared Claire we don't bite…neither does Quill." Riley said quietly winking at me. I felt my jaw drop at this, did everyone know that I had some weird little crush on Quill? I could feel myself blush at the thought.

When I got into the kitchen no one seemed to be paying me any attention, I saw that mostly everyone was sitting down at the table, only Emily was standing and she quickly came over and brought me to the table. I could feel my breathing grow strained as I came near the table, Quill was sitting with his back turned to me but I knew that he would look gorgeous with the white shirt contrasting against his russet skin. There were two chairs left at the table and I immediately went for the one that was furthest from Quill, but Hannah who was sitting two seats down from him motioned for me to sit beside her; and while I was thinking about how to get away from sitting by her Emily sat in the other free seat by Sam. I groaned inwardly and clumsily manoeuvred myself into the seat between Quill and Hannah.

Hannah immediately started talking to me about something, but I was too aware of Quill beside me to even hear what she was saying. All around me people were talking merrily, laughing and joking, but I couldn't concentrate on any of them and could barely taste my food. That's when I noticed that even though there was a constant chatter at the table of people, I had yet to hear the one voice that I wanted to hear; Quill hadn't said a word since I had entered the room. I risked a glance at Quill to see what he was doing and he looked as though he had been forced to sit beside something incredibly unpleasant, he was sitting ramrod straight in his chair his expression looking pained. I quickly looked away afraid at what I had seen and felt utterly dejected, so that odd expression that I had seen on his face earlier after I had smiled at him was some sort of disgust; I could feel my eyes well up slightly at the thought of this and ate with increased speed.

After a while the chatter from around the table seemed to cease, it seemed that everyone knew not to speak to either myself or Quill, because from what I could tell no one had yet to speak to either of us; even Hannah which I found strange. Then the twins and Hannah suddenly got up, I looked up at this sudden movement, Hannah smiled at me "We've got classes down at the community centre.." Hannah began apologetically "I'm taking painting.." Hannah smiled again seemingly pleased with herself. Caleb piped up then rather excitedly "and I'm taking a culinary class!" Caleb blushed then at his own bravery, and I smiled at him encouragingly "That's really cool.. I really enjoyed dinner to by the way!" I finished, Caleb beamed at me. "So what are you doing then Reilly?" I asked curiously. "Well I'm taking what you would call an accompaniment class…" I looked at Reilly puzzled by this, Reilly grinned wickedly at me before continuing, "they take the classes and I accompany them!" Reilly laughed at his own joke and everyone else either groaned or rolled her eyes at him.

"It was great meeting you Claire" they all cajoled as they went out the door, "See you again soon right!" Hannah finished before she closed the front door after them. They had all picked up their rucksacks from the living room before they had left and their absence now left a large silence with the remaining guests. I blushed at the silence and the evident tension between myself and Quill which I'm sure Sam and Emily would both notice.

Instead of having to worry too much more about the silence, Sam began talking to Quill about the garage and how it was doing. Quill only ever gave mono-syllable answers which Sam didn't seem to mind, or in fact seem discouraged by. Emily then turned to me to begin her own conversation. "So Claire…are you going to start going to school here now too?" I thought about this for a moment before continuing, "I'm not entirely sure yet…to be honest I mostly came here to meet the rest of my family… and after the summer I might go back to London it would just be.." before I could finish though I heard someone choke beside me. Quill seemed to have swallowed some of his coffee the wrong way and was coughing loudly to clear his throat, he was looking at me again with another one of his odd expressions, he looked I thought upset by what I had said; but I quickly dismissed this thought why would my leaving upset him?

Following Quill's outburst Emily had decided that it was time to clean the dishes and I got up to help her leaving Sam and Quill alone. I could see Sam mumbling something to Quill, I was surprised that Quill could even hear him but he was mumbling something back in response so I figured that he could. Emily handed me a towel to dry the dishes and she washed. "So Claire.." she began in a quiet voice that I could barely hear "you said that you were thinking about going back to London for school…is that something that you want to do or is it something that your parents decided?". "Well.." I began, "they said that it was my decision as to whether I'd like to go back to London or go to school here instead, I guess it all depends on where Mam works and that…but if she lived near here then I might stay.." I blushed slightly at this, but Emily stopped and looked at me. "Honey I'm sorry that you never had us around for you when you were younger…but I promise that won't happen again we'll always be there for you….and I do hope that your mother lives nearby.." Emily finished with a small wink.

I was surprised by her show of affection and smiled to myself at the thought that she cared about me, now I wanted more than ever to live near here and my family. My thoughts quickly turned to Quill, and I angrily dismissed this, why should I care what about Quill, he didn't care about me!. My mother had said to me that we might end up living around here depending on where she ended up working, I thought about how good it would be to be able to call over to Emily's sometimes and see all my cousins. When I was growing up, I could never say that I was going to visit family over the weekend or holidays like my friends had, instead we would go on holiday for a thoroughly un-Christmassy Christmas.

Then a thought entered my head, Christmas in La Push….a proper family to call my own, I smiled to myself hoping that my mothers meeting had gone well.


	18. Chapter 18

Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight not me!

**Authors Note: Hello all!! Apologies for the very slow updates Im still really busy definitely will be uploading from next week onwards more frequently because Ill have no deadlines or anything over the horizon! Yay So I shall be free for the foreseeable future!! More writing and more uploading:D**

**Thanks for all the queries about where I disappeared off too! No Im not sick thanks for asking...I think...**

**Anyways please review I live for them:D Good or bad:D**

Chapter Eighteen

C.P.O.V

When I got back to the hotel that night I felt more contented than I had done in a long time. Almost as soon as dinner was finished with and I had helped Emily clean up it was time for me to leave. Quill and Sam had moved into the living room to watch some football game on the TV, and Emily had gone to them and informed them that I was leaving for the bus now and she was taking me there. Sam had called cheerily from the couch and I had said goodbye back to him, Quill on the other hand had raised his hand quickly to say goodbye, bringing it back down quickly making me wonder if I had imagined the motion.

Emily had walked me to the bus stop, the bus parked there already giving me no time to talk further with Emily, quickly I thanked her for the day and had left for the hotel. Jane had yet to return but I imagined that she wouldn't be too far behind, probably parking the car now I thought. Throwing myself onto the couch I flicked on the TV, and sure enough Jane came in a few minutes later, smiling to herself.

"Hey Mam!" I called out brightly, waving raising my hand above my head in salute, as opposed to actually moving. Jane's eyebrows raised, obviously she hadn't expected to come home to such a cheerful daughter. "Well hello Claire…how was you're day?" she asked uncertainly, standing awkwardly by the door to her room. I wondered why she was acting so awkwardly but answered her question anyway, "Umm….it was good…yeah I just hung out around the town…how was yours…did the meeting go alright?" I asked careful not to sound too hopeful about it, if this meting went well then Jane would hopefully be staying put here near La Push. Jane looked at me somewhat sceptically before answering my question, "Yes well it went quite well thank you.." she replied cagily, she seemed to think I was being nosey I thought.

"Claire what are you watching?" Jane finally asked having looked at me for a moment or two in silence. Confused I glanced at the screen to see what she was talking about, it was a wildlife programme discussing the mating rituals of the cricket, "Oh...I wasn't even paying attention to it sorry….is there something that you wanted to watch Mam?" I asked as politely as possible; I intended to find out more information about today but I knew that Jane would have to be suitably placated before she told me anything. That was a strange thing about Jane, she treated me with a never-ending suspicion it was almost as though I was some kind of alien, that if approached from the wrong angle would attack. Jane looked at the screen for a moment or two more, "Well no…I wouldn't mind watching a film I suppose.." she said thoughtfully. I knew that she was just hinting at a film with Brad Pitt in it, Jane loved Brad Pitt, she had once when quite drunk informed me that he "he truly was sex on legs!". I quickly scanned the programme schedule on the TV and saw to my delight that 'Meet Joe Black' was on in fifteen minutes. Jane quickly went to her room quickly to deposit her things before the film started.

I had seen the film numerous times, and sat there quietly pretending to pay attention as my mother practically salivated over the screen, smiling to herself, I didn't even want to know what she was thinking. When it was over she sighed contentedly, "I really enjoyed that…I haven't seen that one in ages Susan has my DVD of it.." Jane trailed off, her smile slipping slightly. I could tell that her prolonged absence from Susan was upsetting her, she had never liked spending too much time away from her when we were children, they were just so close; for a moment I felt a familiar pang of hurt at this overt favouritism but bit my lip to control it. Jane looked at me then almost as though she were wondering if her words had, had an effect on me, "Claire why did you come here with me…I mean you could have stayed with your father in London…Susan did.." Jane asked curiosity the only tone evident in her voice. This question surprised me and I wasn't sure how to answer it, I wanted to be honest and tell her that I only came to see my family and a new country; but knew that that particular answer would put her into a foul mood so worded my answer carefully. Telling her the truth but sugar coating it slightly. "Well…I suppose I just thought that Dad had Susan and Gran around for company at home…and well you wouldn't have anyone so I wanted to come with you.." I trailed off hoping that my answer would be seen as acceptable. Jane considered this for a moment, "Well Claire that was thoughtful of you but I really don't need your pity…I'm quite capable of looking after myself." she answered somewhat indignantly. My jaw dropped, I hadn't expected that for an answer, why couldn't my mother just accept that I had chosen her over my father and be done with it. "Mam…I don't pity you…I just wanted to be with you instead of Dad…if you want me to go back to London…I mean I guess I could.." I trailed off. I knew that she would never send me back to London, I was her collateral in a sense, she wanted me around because she knew that would mean extra money for her. My father Brian had to pay child support since I was still under-age, so my mother although not lacking money wasn't about to send me home either, for her to have to pay child support. It was infinitely cheaper just to have me around, since I never really asked for anything except the odd DVD, book or CD, much cheaper than Susan with her expensive school fees. "No Claire…you can stay here…I suppose you're right it's good to have some family around…and I'm sure that Susan will want to come visit you soon too.." Jane seemed to perk up at the thought, although I severely doubted Susan would want to visit me, she never paid me any particular attention when I lived in the room next to her, I couldn't see why she would be interested when I lived in another country. "Maybe…yeah.." I started uncertain now of what to say, but I needn't have worried because the phone rang at the same moment. Jane looked at it in surprise obviously not expecting such a late call, but quickly she got up from the couch and answered it.

From her expression I could tell that it was Brian, Jane's expression turned immediately defensive and I listened trying to piece together what was happening being only able to hear one side of the conversation. "Brian you do realise that it is close to midnight here don't you…I thought that you would be a little more considerate than that!" Jane snapped bitterly down the phone. Whatever Brian said in reply, made Jane stiffen and stand ram rod straight, obviously Brian wasn't intending on taking Jane's criticisms tonight, "Claire is absolutely fine thank you for asking…" Jane paused for a moment blushing slightly at whatever it was that Brian had said to her, and in a moment I understood too, "No Brian…she is perfectly happy where she is, only today I was looking at suitable schools here for her she choose to live here with me…obviously London doesn't hold as many attractions to her as you thought it did.." Jane finished a brief smirk of satisfaction flitted across her face at this. I felt rather amazed at Brian's sudden concern for my education before I realised what Jane was saying, I was staying here with her, she was looking or schools, I fought back the smile that was playing on my lips, not wanting Jane to see my delight at the idea. "Did you want to say hello to….Brian?", Jane called into the phone, annoyance evident in her expression, I knew that she had been about to say my name and felt slightly bothered that my own father had not wanted to speak with me, especially since he hadn't spoke with me in weeks.

Jane slammed the phone down before turning to look at me, her expression dark, I looked up at her with a blank expression not wanting to irritate her further. "So…how's Dad?" I asked with a forced air of lightness that sounded completely foreign to me. Jane scowled at me, "Claire you really shouldn't eavesdrop on other people's conversations it's incredibly rude you do realise that don't you?" she demanded somewhat hysterically. I nodded in compliance, "Sorry Mam…" I added pathetically, Jane looked at me for a moment or two, seemingly placated t my apology. "Well since you were eavesdropping I am assuming that you know I was looking at schools?" Jane asked rather bitterly, why couldn't she just be nice for once I though everything always had to be a fight with her. I nodded my head slightly to show her that I had heard, and she rolled her eyes at me, a move upon which used by me on her would usually result on me being either grounded or sent to my room. "Yes I researched some schools…I don't want you going just anywhere now do I…and in that case I'm assuming that it is obvious that got a job here.." Jane added nonchalantly, as though this was of no consequence to me, therefore the congratulations at the tip of my tongue remained there. "I'll be working in Seattle which is a few hours from here…" I groaned inwardly if that was the case then I would never get to see Emily and the rest of my family, Jane continued talking through my reverie, I barely paid attention to her until she was nearly finished talking, "I found a good property not too far from here…I think it would be best to have the house between your school and Seattle as opposed to in Seattle itself…the school really is very good…better than any of the schools that I saw there anyway.." Jane trailed off, obviously the schools she saw had been sub-par as far as she was concerned. I suppressed a smile, this was working out better than I had dared to have hoped, I would be near La Push but Jane would rarely be home enough to notice me.

"Claire...Claire!" Jane called to me, obviously she had been speaking to me more on the matter but I hadn't been paying attention. "Is that clear with you then?" she asked, but the question was rhetorical, nothing I said mattered so I merely shrugged in response, not wanting to arouse any suspicion in her. "Fine well that's good...we'll be moving there in the next few days or so.." Jane trailed off. I got the impression that she had been planning this for quite some time, otherwise how had she arranged a school for me and a house for us to live in, in a such a short amount of time.

"Alright Mam.." I said smiling pleasantly at her. Jane looked at me, with the familiar confused expression, that told me that she really didn't understand me at all. I turned towards the TV only to hear her bedroom door close heavily behind her, evidently she had, had enough of my company for one evening.


	19. Authors Note

Authors note: Hi so sorry for not having uploaded in quite some time but have been incredibly busy amongst other things... I realised today that I didn't put up any reason for my absence here in this story so I decided that I ought to put one up for people that don't read my other fan-fic _What Came Next, _but check it out and it will explain my extended and most likely continued absence for a little while! Sorry...and it's the last chapter titled authors note I think otherwise chapter 22! (my laptop tends to pick things up wrong!)

Also I must apologise for the shockingly bad grammar mistakes that I made in the chapter where Claire and Jane spoke to one another I didn't really look it over properly and I will most likely fix it when I can get around to it!

Shazviv


	20. Chapter 20

Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight not myself...although Jane is a creation all unto my own as are Reilly, Caleb and Hannah:D

**Authors Note: Alright then I apologise again for my severe delay in getting the next chapter or so up...but I was kind of hoping to get some help from some people about a topic that was vital to the story and since no one could answer my question for me I just went blindly into this so apologies if I don't thoroughly understand the way things work State side!**

**By the way this chapter is a bit of a filler but its an important one...:O**

**Okay well thank you all for your reviews keep um coming and I shall keep writing!! As to the constant requests for Quill and Claire conversations well there coming don't worry:D But the way I have it planned is quite specific in my head so you will have to wait and see!! ;D**

**Right so review please as always good or bad and I shall be eternally grateful:D**

Chapter Nineteen

C.P.O.V

Over the next few days I didn't get back to La Push, Jane was around the entire time as she wasn't starting work for another week. Jane was busy organising our move to the new house, she had brought me to it two days after the phone call to Brian. It was unsurprisingly a modern house in a gated community, which was somewhat oddly situated in the countryside, I had never seen this before but had accepted it immediately as exactly to Jane's tastes. The house was two storey with an attic conversion, it had four bedrooms each one en-suite, there was a sitting room, a kitchen and scullery and importantly for my mother there was a dining room. Throughout the house there was a theme, the theme being white, Jane had decided that she wanted to go for a more minimalist approach this time, which wasn't that much different to the house in London I thought but had immediately dropped upon seeing the scowl my mother wore at my mention it.

I hadn't expected much from the house and as wasn't disappointed or surprised by it, the only thing about it that I truly loved was my room. Jane had told me which room was hers and had proceeded to announce to me that I could have any of which I so choose, she really didn't care where I slept as long as it was inside the house she wouldn't have the neighbours thinking I was odder than I already looked. I thought that her allowing me the room of my choice was probably her weird way of letting me know that she was if only slightly glad that I was around. Upon inspecting each room apart from my mothers, each one had a similar feel to it, four walls big spacious large windows, and large wardrobes. The room that I had left until last was the attic conversion and it was definitely a case of it being saving the best for last.

The room was very spacious, spanning almost an entire floor on its own, a bathroom was the only thing that stopped the room from taking up an entire floor. Instead of the large windows that were in the other rooms there were dormer windows in the ceiling, as well as the window the wall at the end of the room was covered entirely in glass, it couldn't be called a window because it led out onto a balcony. The north side of the house from my room down to the dining room was covered in glass, impractical but quite nice I thought, surprised at myself, usually I hated glass, it being a reminder of my own old upbringing in London. My room had a lot of wood in it which reminded me distinctly of Emily's house, it was warm and bright and perfect for me. Jane had surprised me when she had announced that I could have free reign of the room, when I had asked her if she minded what I decorated it like, she had announced that she didn't intend on going up there so I could. I had beamed at her when she said this, Jane had smirked at me slightly at this point, it reminded me a little of Emily's smile.

I had been initially delighted at the thought of the room and being able to decorate it to my liking, unlike Hannah I doubted that my room would be particularly interesting, but I could try. The only setback in my decorating plans was a lack of funds, when I had said to Jane that I didn't have enough money to decorate the room she had merely shrugged at me and said to ask my father for money. As annoying as this was, I didn't actually have to ask my father for the money, he had already sent me a cheque for one thousand pounds, he had later rang me to let me know that it was for school fees and the like; but since my mother had already paid them she had said to use it myself. Jane had been going to visit a furniture store in Seattle and I had gone along with her, whilst there I managed to pick out a bed, desk and chair for my room; my room already had a large pine dresser so I didn't need a wardrobe. My bed was a black iron framed bed, Jane had joked that it looked like one of the beds in the orphanage in the film Annie, I had merely scowled in response. The desk was similar to Hannah's desk, it was a heavy second hand desk that was covered in knots and the varnish was slightly worn on it, there were drawers on the left and shelves on the right. I had fallen in love with it as soon as I had seen it, Jane hadn't been too impressed but had let me to it. Finally my chair was retro high backed luminous red chair, it was plastic but had cushion lining where you sat, there was also arm rests on it that were set wide apart giving me plenty of room, the chair was a swivel chair meaning that I could move it around my room easily. The furniture was being delivered in a few days meaning I had to sleep in one of the spare rooms for now, but I didn't mind, I couldn't wait to have them all in their. I knew that it would be quite sparse but I figured that I could add things as time went on and smiled to myself whenever I thought about staying here.

It didn't take long for us to settle into the house, Jane had decided to buy entirely new furnishings for the house and since the house was already structurally prepared there was nothing left for Jane or I to do. Jane had brought me to see my new school, it was a school called Oak Falls Academy, it was a rather imposing looking building. It was an impressive school, boasting two swimming pools, a tennis court, basketball court, a gym amongst other things. I wasn't too particularly interested in the sports facilities myself, my asthma restricting all physical activities. Despite it's imposing air, I thought that I would like the school, the library was modern and well stocked, and the computer lab was up to date. These were my two sanctuaries when I was at school spending the majority of my time in both places in an attempt to hide myself away from the rest of the world.

Having seen the school I had wondered silently to myself how I was supposed to get too and from the actual school itself when it started. It was the end of July and I wasn't starting until September so I didn't worry about it too much right then, but I couldn't imagine this school having a bus service from near my house. My question was answered later that day for me, when Jane who had been watching the TV came into the kitchen to find me listening to the radio and writing at the table, at first I didn't pay much attention to her but she coughed expectantly causing me to look up at her curiously.

"Claire…I've been thinking about you going to school…and how you were going to get back and forth.." Jane began looking at me expectantly, "Well since your sixteen and legally speaking you can drive if you want I was thinking that it would be best you learned…I can't really wait around every morning for you…" Jane trailed off seemingly thinking about what she was about to say, but from her expression it didn't seem particularly favourable to her. After a few moments she spoke again, but luckily for me the news was good, "Well here's the thing, people learn to drive in high school here and well since most people do this there isn't a huge market for driving instructors so the nearest one is in Seattle and I can't bring you there with work…" Jane paused for a breath before continuing again, "I asked your uncle Sam if he would teach you and he said that he would so tomorrow before work I'll drop you over there and he'll bring you home alright?". Jane asked, her expression fierce almost as though she were willing me to challenge her decision. I blinked at her in surprise afraid to say anything in case she would change her mind, and my sudden opportunity to visit La Push more often, would be taken away. Instead I nodded non-commitally at Jane, something that usually irritated her but didn't provoke her in this instance. "Right well...be up for about six Sam's expecting you at about seven thirty alright!" exclaimed before leaving quickly, not bothering to wait for an answer.

I sat at the table for a few minutes more thinking about this sudden progression, it seemed to me that Jane had done this out of necessity as opposed to actually wanting me to get to know my family. However I was loathe to say anything that would jeopardize this unexpected surprise, I decided then that it would probably be best to go to bed right away it was late and I knew that it would take me too long to get up as always in the morning.

**Authors Note: Well I'm guessing that since you have read to the end that you will have guessed what I was talking about in regards to the important thing that I didn't really understand!! So heres the thing the driving lessons will be important to the story...but I have no idea how things work in relation to drivers-ed and the rest of it only having vaguely heard in passing from my cousins in California so your just going to have to put up with my ignorance I do apologise:(...But hopefully it won't be too bad... :)**


	21. Chapter 21

Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight not me.

**Authors Note: Apologies for the extended absence I had a note put up on my other story as to why I hadn't uploaded lately, but to those of you that didn't know this already there were quite a few deaths amongst my family and friends recently so I needed a bit of a break from everything...I didn't realise though that it had been a month and I'm horrified that its been that long I used to upload more than once a day at one stage!! :O**

**To answer all your questions which largely revolve around Quill teaching Claire to drive...well I'm afraid that that will be out of the question...I though about it or about a second when I realised that it would be completely impractical for that to happen. I mean Claire was told by Emily not to mention meeting Quill..but not just Quill..older men in general, now if Sam were to bail then for Quill to take over Claire would have to keep quiet for them to continue and Jane would be bound to ask how they were going...and since Claire is not supposed to see Quill then it wouldn't really work...Emily could hardly tell Claire not to mention something like that to her mother without going into some detail which is for now too early for Claire and not practical! So sorry no Quill won't be teaching Claire but he will be playing part in her day to day lessons :P **

**Anyways please don't give up on the story I will try to upkeep the uploads I'll upload a few today!! Thanks for all the reviews, alerts and everything your all great!! Please if your not to annoyed at having to wait keep reading and reviewing!!**

Chapter Twenty

Q.P.O.V

Dinner at Sam's had been awkward, when I had got there everyone had been gathering around the table, Caleb and Emily were in the kitchen serving the dinner. Sam had answered the door, his expression was easily read and he looked excited, I frowned at Sam in an attempt to make him calm down if at all possible. Sam had always felt guilty about Claire and I, and now that she was back and living near by he was trying his hardest to make it possible for me to spend time with her. Now that we were going to have dinner together and he could see us both in the one room together, he seemed even more excited than I felt. Hannah, Reilly and most importantly Claire weren't there yet, still upstairs getting ready I assumed.

Sam waved to the seat beside him and Emily put our plates on the table, everyone else quickly sitting down at the table, I swallowed loudly when I realised that the only free seat left was beside me. I saw Sam smirk at me slightly when Claire sat down beside me, I knew she was in the room before I even heard her, the familiar tug at the end of my stomach working as an alarm of sorts. Once Claire was beside me I had to use my complete concentration to do the simplest things, like bringing my glass of water to my mouth without it spilling it everywhere. I could feel my muscles bunch together at how close she was to me, everyone else seemed to notice too and to my relief no one remarked on it or even spoke to me for that matter, they didn't speak to Claire either and I noticed when I braved a glance in her direction that she seemed to be feeling rather awkward. It took a great effort to fight the compulsion that I felt to reach out and comfort her, it almost tore me apart to know that I was the source of this discomfort. I also noticed that tonight she was wearing make-up, something that she hadn't been wearing this morning, and it made her look even more beautiful than before, I found that it made my already confused thoughts and movements increasingly difficult to control and cursed myself slightly for my suddenly depleting self-control.

Eventually the twins and Hannah left for a night class at the community center leaving just Sam, Emily, Claire and I. Emily made some coffee for us all,I was still finding it difficult to concentrate on the smallest movements, spilling my coffee several times. Emily noticed and smiled reassuringly at me, I could feel myself blush at this point, just hoping that Claire hadn't noticed. But she probably hadn't she hadn't looked in my direction since she had first sat beside me. I wanted her to look at me, I wanted to see her face, but instead she sat there with her hair hanging down covering her from my gaze.

"So Quill.." Sam began, "How are things in the garage?" attempting to make some small talk, since no one at the table was talking. My thoughts were completely disorientated and I managed a grunt like "Fine" before returning to my coffee, but Sam persisted, "and is Stanley getting on okay?" I threw him an exasperated expression before answering this question, "Okay.." Claire and Emily were talking and I wanted to hear Claire's voice, and Sam was distracting me. Apparently Sam had understood my glance as a signal not to ask me questions, or talk about anything that warranted a response as he was rambling on about some new generator he was installing at some house in Forks.

Claire's voice was quiet and melodic, her accent was strong, and I was listening to the different ways she said things to me. I was so caught up in listening to Claire that I almost didn't realise for a moment what she had said and choked on the coffee I had just swallowed. Claire had said that she might be going back to London again. I turned and stared at her for a moment, Claire turning to me her expression at first surprised then changing to what I thought was curiosity.

At this point Sam took me into the living room, there was a match on that he said he wanted to watch, although I got the feeling it was more of an excuse to talk to me in private away from the girls that were now washing the dishes. Sam sat on the couch nearest the TV whilst I sat closer to the girls, constantly looking between them and the game, which I couldn't follow the players merely blurred objects flitting across the screen. I thought about what she had said, she couldn't leave again...I couldn't take it not so soon, not when she had only just come back. I reminded myself then that she had said that she would have stay here if her mother settled down near here. I had never been religious but I prayed silently to whatever God was listening to get Jane the job that she had gone to the interview for. Like before my life rested upon a decision made by one of Claire's parents, people that didn't care that they had almost killed me when they had left before. People that thought that I would hurt their daughter, a dangerous monster that needed to be kept from Claire, the one person that I would never could never hurt.

Sam didn't dare speak to me the during our pretense at watching the football match, he seemed to realise that I wasn't capable of normal human interaction at the moment, and I was hugely grateful for this. When Emily came to inform us that she was taking Claire to the bus stop she had smiled at me sympathetically before leading Claire outside. Sam had called out goodbye to Claire as she left, I didn't trust myself to speak so instead I waved quickly, unsure if Claire even saw the motion or not. I felt completely depressed seeing her leave and wanted to go after her and tell her everything, tell her that I loved her, that I had been waiting fourteen years for her to come home to me, but I remained seated mostly due to Sam placing his hand on my forearm, calming as ever. It was only when the sound of Emily and Claire's voices could no longer be heard that Sam spoke to me.

"Quill are you alright?" Sam asked tentatively, the way he was positioned beside me looked as though thought he was disarming a bomb or something equally dangerous. "Sam.." I began shrugging slightly my mouth slightly hanging open, unsure of what I ought to say, "What if Claire leaves again?" I finally managed to stutter out. Sam put his hand on my shoulder sympathetically, "Quill I can't say that she wont...because I can't be certain..but remember she wants to stay here she said as much herself..." he trailed off, pausing for a moment, "Besides Quill I think that you have to give Claire a little more credit than you have.." Sam began. My head snapped up at this point, "What do you mean?" I demanded, glaring at Sam. "Quill calm down, and let me finish.." Sam replied in his always calm voice, "Our Claire is a little more resourceful than you think...do you really think that Jane gave her permission to come here unaccompanied tonight?" Sam asked a broad smile stretching across his face.

I stared back at Sam, "Claire came here without...without telling Jane?" I asked surprised. Sam nodded, "Yes she couldn't wait to come back Quill and just took matters into her own hands.." Sam finished grinning at me. I couldn't help but feel a littl more hopeful at this point. Even if Jane was against Claire coming here to La Push, Claire would find a way anyway regardless, I almost laughed in relief at the thought. It reminded me a little of myself pre- the pack, she had sneaked here, unaware of the reasons why her mother didn't want her to come. I got the impression that Claire although not knowing much was perceptive and did what she wanted regardless.

Soon after I had left to go home for the night, my thoughts filled with the different pieces of information that Sam had told me about Claire once our discussion was over, from her relationship with the rest of her family down to her asthma. When I got home my thoughts were filled with nothing but Claire, always Claire

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I could hardly bring myself to believe what Sam had told me, it didn't seem possible or real. When he had come by to the garage today, he was completely flustered and out of breathe because he had run there. At first I had panicked afraid that it was something to do with Claire, thinking the worst straight away, and had to quickly calm myself when I felt a tremor run through my body; she was having such an effect on my carefully crafted resolution. When Sam had told me what he had been coming to tell me I almost cried with joy, much to the others amusement and the confusion of Stanley the only non-pack member working in the garage. Sam had told me that Claire and her mother were staying nearby, Jane had bought a house and Claire would be attending Oak Falls Academy the nearby private school. All of this had been music to my ears, but it was Sam said last that had caused me to actually laugh with relief. Jane wanted Sam to teach Claire how to drive, it was only so she would be able to drive herself to school when it started.

Jane had compiled a list of rules though, apparently she felt that Sam was trustworthy since none of his children had ever been harmed by him. When Sam had told Jane that he was no longer in the pack it had sealed the deal, and Claire would be allowed to call by whenever she wanted, although I didn't think Claire was aware of this fact. Sam had also mentioned that he didn't ask Jane about what her conditions were about me, so he was assuming that they would still stand without question; but apparently Claire hadn't mentioned our previous meeting after Emily had asked, and I was hoping that this might continue.

Now all I had to do was be patient, there was no immediate danger of me being separated from Claire, and this fact alone made me all the more capable of controlling my emotions and behaviour. I hoped that this newfound control would give me the ability to speak with Claire now, I needed to get to know her, for her to know me at this point I couldn't think of anything more important than that.


	22. Chapter 22

Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight not me.

**Authors Note: Alright well second and last upload for today. I know that everyone has been looking forward to Claire meeting Quill and everything, but I had to make a decision about the lessons and how they would work, and since I knew nothing about driving in America then I had to write the lessons the way that I did. If you don't like it I'm sorry this is just what felt right to me and it dosen't mean that there won't be interaction there will be so read on and I hope that you like it!**

**Review good or bad as always!**

Chapter Twenty-one

C.P.O.V

My driving lessons had begun straight away, as I had expected it took m quite sometime for me to manage to get out of bed, and my levels of coherency were non-existent until we were passing through Forks. This pattern continued or the next two weeks, each morning I would get up and Jane would bring me to La Push for my driving lesson. Sam would take me out for about an hour after I had breakfast with him and Emily. They had been delighted at my coming to see them more often and would let me spend the day there, much longer than Jane intended. Jane had initially expected me to get the bus to Port Angeles and from there to our house, as a bus ran past it regularly, instead I would spend the majority of my day there before Sam would bring me home in the evening before Jane would get home.

I loved La Push, each day I got to know my family that little bit better, and at this stage I felt more at home there than I ever had in my own house. Hannah and the twins and I all acted as though we had been friends all our lives, they had welcomed me with open arms and had introduced me to all their hobbies including cliff diving, something which at this stage I choose to watch as opposed to participate in.

One of the highlights of my day was whenever I saw Quill, which was most days. My strange crush on Quill had intensified over the last few weeks, Sam on our driving lessons would often stop by the garage to talk with the guys that worked there. I had noticed that they all looked like brothers, and that's how they treated one another, I enjoyed going there and knew them all by name now at least. Sam would go talk to them and I would be towed along in his wake, at first I had been awkward unable to speak around Quill, I never was a huge talker but I seemed to become cripplingly shy around him. It was difficult to be near him, each time I saw him my breathing became erratic, my heart would beat so fast and loudly in my chest that I was sure that the others could hear it, I sometimes thought I noticed them glance at me knowingly. That's all I needed for them all to realise that I had a crush on Quill, it was fairly obvious as it was already. I had found myself able to speak with the mechanics such as Jacob quite easily, but when Quill spoke to me I would merely mumble incoherently to him. But he would smile patiently at me and speak anyway, talking about different things, asking me about London and how it was in comparison to La Push I thought that he seemed to know quite a lot about London considering he had never been there before and wondered if it was somewhere that he had wanted to visit.

These conversations were somewhat one sided but in recent days I had found myself capable of contributing something more in each conversation. I began to realise how much both Quill and I had in common, he liked the same films, TV programmes and he had read the same books as me, he had recommended some new ones to me that I hadn't heard of before to, which I planned on reading immediately, but what I loved most of all was that he had the exact same taste in music as me. Just the day before he had handed me his mp3 player allowing me to see what songs he had stored on it, every band on it I knew and had laughed upon seeing this. Quill had looked at me confusedly and I thought a little hurt, I had quickly answered by taking my headphones which hung from their usual spot from around my neck, and my mp3 player from my pocket to let him see my own music library. Upon seeing it Quill had grinned in understanding, he thought it was funny that I had all the same songs as him too.

Sam would often watch me talking with Quill, he tried to be stealthy about it by only glancing over now and again, but I got the distinct impression that he understood exactly how I was beginning to feel about Quill. My crush was quickly turning into something much more powerful than I had previously imagined or expected it to be, I knew logically that it didn't make sense for me to feel this way after such a short time and with no encouragement on his part. Quill was always nice to me, he was polite and spoke to me but it was in a brotherly friendly kind of way, nothing to suggest that he was even remotely interested in me. Each time I thought of this I almost laughed, as if Quill the godly Quill, would be interested in me, he may have had a lot in common with me but that was it. I was nothing in comparison to him, I was much younger and I was plain. Quill could have anyone he wanted, there was no way that he would want me, why would he?

Jane was becoming more human like as time went by too. I was beginning to notice that she would speak with Emily more and more every day, sometimes phoning her in the evenings to ask how my lessons were going. Apparently my reports were not good enough for her but I didn't mind, if it meant that they would get over whatever rift that was between them.

Today was the day of my driving test and Jane was bringing me to the DMV to take it. I was surprised that she wanted to bring me instead of Sam, but she had insisted that she had the day off so she had was going to take me. I was feeling quite nervous about the entire thing, I had taken to the driving lessons quickly, leaving Sam suitably impressed, he had been getting nervous all week at my impending test. I had thought it was sweet of him, but after three weeks of daily lessons we had gotten to know one another well, and I thought nothing of calling him my "uncle Sam".

When we arrived at the DMV, I noticed that Jane was looking slightly nervous and sat down on one of the plastic chairs in the waiting area. I thought that she wasn't going to say anything to me until I had turned and walked away a little bit from her, "Claire….good luck..". Jane had said quietly, "Thanks Mam…" I said surprised by her sudden sentiment. Before stepping up to the booth where a small mousy looking woman was waiting impatiently for me to hand over my forms.

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"Congratulations Claire!" the twins chorused as I walked into the house. Jane had promised Emily that she would phone after my test to let her know how everything went, and when she had, Emily had told her about a celebratory party that the twins and Hannah planned. Jane who was in good humour at her day not having been wasted I was assuming, without too much persuasion had agreed to go.

Emily had baked some of her muffins and a gorgeous looking cake which sat in the middle of the table with blue and white icing saying congratulations on it. I smiled at the cake, they had such confidence in me passing the test I thought, they had made the cake the night before along with the icing, so I knew that they hadn't just applied it before I came, otherwise it wouldn't have set. The little party was short, I hadn't eaten much when the twins had dragged me out with them, Hannah had to go to work, looking after a neighbours children. Sam they had informed me was working at the garage today, he was fixing some fault with the wiring for the lights. Sam worked as an electrician in La Push and in Forks, his hours were flexible which was how he had managed to give me lessons each morning for the last few weeks.

"He doesn't know whether or not you passed yet!" Reilly exclaimed gleefully, obviously thinking that it was funny that his father was still anxiously awaiting news. I teased him the rest of the way to the garage, telling him that he was really one of the meanest people I had the misfortune of having met. Reilly had defended himself to the best of his ability but admitted defeat when Caleb joined in too, unable to ward off a two pronged assault. We were in stitches laughing as we approached the garage, which made walking quite difficult as the garage was on a hill. I could see someone poke their head out of the garage curiously to see what the commotion was, I recognised the face as that of Jacob Black, one of the guys who owned the garage. Soon Sam was outside and he bounded towards us seemingly delighted. "Claire you passed!!" he was positively beaming, he lifted me up and spun me around, leaving me quite dizzy in the process.

I grinned in response and saw that a few of the other guys had come outside too, evidently knew that I was taking my test today too. "Claire congratulations!" everyone called out at different times, a strange blend of words, discernible only because I knew what they were trying to say to me. I blushed at the attention before mumbling, "Thanks…" and looking shyly at my feet. Everyone laughed at my reaction before returning to their work and conversations, the twins quickly made their way over to Stanley who was only a little older than them and had gone to school with them, leaving me to stand in the yard looking stupidly at my shoes.

"So I suppose we won't be expecting anymore visits from now on then will we?" Quill asked quietly as he walked over to me. I hadn't expected him to be quite so close when I looked up, and I blushed at the close proximity and what he had said. It was probably my imagination but he sounded quite disappointed about this idea, but I quickly ignored that train of thought, he was probably glad to see the back of me. Instead I laughed as lightly as I could before answering, "Yeah…no more annoying morning visits from Claire!" I said rolling my eyes in an attempt to appear nonchalant. Quill tilted his head to the side and considered me for a moment, why did he have to look so damn beautiful I wondered to myself, as usual fighting the compulsion to touch him. An annoying but for the present controllable problem, I knew that if my visits had continued my self control would have slipped eventually though.

"Claire you were never annoying…always a pleasure.." Quill trailed off, an odd expression flitted across his face that I couldn't place, but I blushed all the same. Quill had just told me that he liked having me around, which even if he meant in a purely platonic way had me grinning broadly. "Thanks…" I finally managed to stutter out eventually. Quill chuckled softly at my evident embarrassment, I looked up at this and caught his eye straight away, my heart as usual fluttered dramatically; Quill's expression changed to the odd expression that I had noticed earlier, and before I could think about it further, he lumbered forward suddenly and caught me in a hug.

I couldn't believe that Quill was hugging me, his warm arms wrapped around me tightly, tight but not tight enough for my liking, my blood pulsed feverishly, my temperature soaring. I tried to calm myself as best as I could, pull yourself together I thought to myself don't be get carried away, it was only a congratulatory hug, and almost as if on queue Quill pulled away, "Congratulations Claire…" he almost whispered, before turning and walking quickly into the garage.

I stood their for a moment feeling utterly dumbstruck at this sudden progression. When he had hugged me I stood there stupidly not daring to move, when all I wanted to do was wrap my arms around him too and pull him closer to me. I cursed to myself silently, I should not be thinking these thoughts about a fully grown man, he was not interested in me and he never would be….then what was with his expression, he looked for a moment as though he wanted to kiss me, I thought but then again what would I know I had never kissed a guy before. It was sad but true, that I had made it to age sixteen without being kissed, I had always attended all girl schools and never really had any male interaction until now; I hadn't really thought about Oak Falls academy much since I heard I'd be going there but I knew it was a mixed school. That didn't really bother me too much, I had no interest in boys my age at the moment, not when I had Quill to dream over.

When I looked up from my feet which I finally realised that I'd been staring at I saw that Sam was throwing glances in my direction occasionally and I could see that Jacob was looking between myself and Quill too with a small smile playing on his lips. Once they realised that I had noticed the glances quickly ended, leaving me feeling increasingly embarrassed by my reactions around Quill. I wanted the ground to swallow me up on the spot at the thought that everyone knew I had a crush on Quill, it was so blatantly obvious that I wondered how Quill didn't notice. That's when it occurred to me that he probably did know, and that would explain the strange expression on his face, he probably felt sorry for me, sad little girl with a crush on him. I groaned silently to myself, why did I have to have a crush on someone that everyone knew, why didn't I have a crush on a celebrity or an actor, anyone but Quill, it was just so awkward and their was no way that anything would come from it. My own unrequited crush.


	23. Chapter 23

Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight not me

**Authors Note: Thanks for the reviews please keep them coming good or bad! :D **

**I'm glad that people aren't too annoyed that I choose to write her driving lessons like that, it just felt more realistic to me to do it this way. As for the whole permit thing that someone pointed out...I have absolutely no idea how the American driving system works (I'm from Ireland) and despite a number of you very nicely pointing things out to me I got quite confused by the different explanations I received! So thanks for your help all appreciated!**

**Of course Claire's first day of school will be included I'm just getting around to write it now! But I'm afraid you may have to wait a little longer for it yet so don't give up on it and please continue to be patient with my irregular uploading! :D**

Chapter Twenty-Two

Q.P.O.V

These last few weeks had been the best days of my life, Sam and Claire's driving lessons had begun the day after he had told me the news. Sam had promised that he would stop by the garage if he could with Claire so I would get a chance to speak with her, but I was going to have to be stealthy about it, we couldn't make it seem obvious that it was planned.

For the fist few days that Claire had come to the garage, she had been shy and awkward around us all, especially me. I had thought that she just didn't want to speak to me at first from the way she would hold a conversation with everyone else except me, mumbling incoherently whenever I spoke to her. In an attempt to win her around I asked her about London, and used some of the information that I had learned about London over the years. It was a rather sad thing to do I had thought afterwards but I had wanted to know as much as I could about London after Claire had moved there and had read numerous travel books about it. Now however I was glad that I had because it was gradually beginning to make Claire talk to me more.

As the days went by, Claire spoke to me more telling me about her interests and the resemblance between hers and mine were uncanny. Everything from films, TV programmes, books and especially music; I had taken great pleasure in recommending books to Claire, she had seemed so excited about them that I had been grinning about it to myself for the rest of the day, irritating the other guys to no end. Each day I had waited impatiently for Claire's visits and had worked restlessly until I heard the now familiar hum of Sam's car engine.

When Sam had called over today though I felt sick at the news that he had given me, Claire was taking her driving test today. Sam had conveniently forgotten to mention it to me until now, he had been worried that if I had known it would

have made the day before more awkward for me, and he wanted me to enjoy my time with Claire without worrying too much. At first I had been mad at Sam but as usual I had come around to his way of thinking, he was too logical for his own good sometimes. I had been impossible to work with as I waited for news of Claire's test to arrive, Sam had kept his distance along with the rest of the guys. Stanley as usual didn't know what was happening but had thankfully followed suit.

After lunch laughing could be heard from outside, Jacob had looked to see who it was and I saw the glance he threw at Sam to let him know that Claire was on her way. It took all my self control not to run outside and see what had happened, I could feel my stomach heave when I heard the excited yelps from outside, Claire had passed. Everyone had congratulated Claire quickly and gone back to their work, I went out to see her and when the twins saw me they quickly went inside the garage to talk with Stanley. Claire was staring at her feet, looking quite lost and blushing, from the unwanted attention I guessed. Moving faster than I had meant to I went to stand in front of Claire, "So I suppose we won't be expecting anymore visits from now on then will we?" I asked, my voice sounding weak even to me. Claire looked up at me considering my face for a moment before laughing airily, "Yeah…no more annoying morning visits from Claire!" Claire said before rolling her eyes. Claire's laugh seemed forced I thought, I could tell that she was upset, and heard the question in what she had said. "Claire you were never annoying…always a pleasure.." I stated matter of factly, Claire blushed again, one of her more adorable traits I thought to myself, tilting my head to the side to get a better look at her.

Claire finally looked up at me again, and she really did look so beautiful and fragile standing there awkwardly, still blushing, that I wanted to comfort her and congratulate her even though I was cursing the fact that I wouldn't see her every day. This brought about a fresh wave of emotion and without thinking I moved forward and caught her up in a hug. It was the most overwhelming sensation to have Claire in my arms, I felt her temperature soar and I was frightened that I was the cause but then I heard her heart beat and it was racing; I smiled slightly knowing I could have an effect on her. I could have held her there for the rest of the day but I forced myself to let go congratulating her as I did. Claire seemed somewhat dizzy and I wanted to help her balance herself, but I stopped myself and instead dragged myself back into the garage, where I could feel the eyes of everyone else on my back.


	24. Chapter 24

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight

**Authors Note: Apologies for not having uploaded in absolute ages had a little writers block for the next chapter and was quite busy so I didn't get round to posting! Thanks for the reviews for the last chapter! :D**

**Enjoy and review please as always good or bad! :D**

Chapter Twenty-Three

C.P.O.V

Now that I had my driver's licence, Jane was looking out for a car for me. Jane was a self-confessed car-phobe, she literally knew nothing about them bar how to drive them and putting gas in the car. Any car that she bought was chosen on the grounds of whether or not the car was good looking or not, she was currently driving a Porsche two seater, moving on from her usual favourite of a jaguar. I had always found her car choices to be ostentatious and was hoping that I would get a car that was small and cheap, nothing dramatic like hers which would make me stand out like a sore thumb. Although I doubted that would be a problem considering the backgrounds of the other students going to Oak Falls, lawyers, doctors, the usual types children, I was expecting them all to have expensive cars.

Luckily Jane had decided to let me have my own choice of car, giving me a limit of three thousand dollars, a relative fortune as far as I was concerned. Any car that I wanted should only cost about a grand, I didn't want a brand spanking new car, I preferred one which had lived a bit. Even though I had a better idea about cars than my mother, I was still relatively naïve about them, I wasn't sure where I was supposed to go about getting one or who with. So I had decided to visit La Push, I hadn't been there in a few days, Jane not wanting me to plague them with visits had ordered me to stay at home, now that my lessons were over my excuses for visiting La Push were harder to concoct.

Jane was in the kitchen skimming over the newspaper, drinking her usual cup of green tea before heading for work. I had much to my eternal annoyance turned into a morning person of sorts following my driving lessons, waking up at about six each morning, expecting to get up and leave soon after. At first I had cursed it wanting to spend longer in bed but being unable to get back to sleep once awake, thoughts of La Push and Quill in particular invading my thoughts, making sleep impossible. So after a few days of this I had admitted defeat and would get up and try and be productive, such as this morning, I was intending on getting a lift from Jane to La Push if I could work it, but I wasn't entirely hopeful.

Jane looked up from her paper, her eyes suspicious, a constant feature in regards to me, before seemingly pretending I wasn't there and returning to the paper. I wondered what would be the best way to approach this, should I come straight out and ask or should I butter her up first, I wasn't sure but I thought I should work the garage into the conversation. After all it would make sense for me to ask Jacob and most importantly for me Quill not that he would know more than Jacob about what type of car would be the most reliable.

"Mam…I was thinking about the car…." at this Jane looked up at me expectantly, clearly hadn't expected me to be talking about this, I silently wondered what she had thought I had come to her for, "Well its just that when I was in La Push….I got to know the guys that worked in the garage pretty well and I was thinking of dropping by and asking them for help with picking out a car…after all they would know what car is best for me…." I trailed off hopefully. Jane paused mid swallow of her cup of tea and looked at me oddly, almost angry I though or accusatory. "Claire.." she began, her voice sounded both angry and almost worried which was something that my mother rarely did, about me in any case, "this garage….I take it that they are friends of Sam…." Jane seemed to be weighing each word carefully before speaking, she looked at me at the last statement questioningly, I nodded in assent not sure where she was going with this, "Claire…does a man named…. Quill…. work there?" Jane asked, her voice dripping in disgust at Quill's name. I was surprised by this question, never expecting her to associate the two, how did she even know Quill?. This didn't make any sense, Emily then popped into my head and her warning about not mentioning that I had met Quill. Could there be some history there that I was unaware of ? I shook this notion off as ridiculous, Jane was far too old for Quill.

I tried to think of something to say in response to this, not sure what I should say, Emily had said that I shouldn't mention meeting older men she had said, not Quill specifically. I decided that I might as well tell her the truth, my prolonged silence seemed to speak volumes anyway. "Yeah he does…but I was thinking of asking Jacob Black he owns the place.." I added hoping it would soften her reaction because right now she looked fit to explode. Jane's eyes narrowed at this, "Claire….I want you to stay away from Quill….he…he's no good for you and I won't have my daughter associating with him.." Jane trailed off her voice trembling as she spoke. Now I was utterly confused, Quill was nothing but a gentlemen to me, a good friend of Sam and Emily, he was harmless and of course my idol at the moment. I stared at my mother stupidly before answering her, "Mam…I don't know what you're talking about…the Quill that I know...Quill Artera is a pretty nice guy…" I could feel myself blushing as I spoke his name, a fact that didn't go unnoticed by my mother. "Claire please just do as you're told for once will you no arguments…just stay away from Quill." Jane's voice was shaking as she spoke now and I wondered what her problem with Quill was, and usually I did as I was told but now I found myself feeling angry at Jane criticising Quill. "Mam Quill has never been anything but nice to me whenever I've seen him which for your information is not very often in case you were wondering...and he is friends with Sam and Emily and you trust them don't you?" I demanded, taken aback by my own bravery and my lie in between. I had said I didn't see Quill often, unless you counted daily ten or so minute encounters, which I was hoping didn't.

Jane's eyes widened in surprise unused to me answering her back and she placed her paper and cup on the island that she was sitting on a stool by before answering me. "So you've met him then…" Jane spoke quietly now, sounding frightened now for ounce. I couldn't understand what was going on, why was she so concerned with Quill all of a sudden. "Mam…I really don't see why you don't want me to see Quill…..we're only friends…" I trailed off, I knew that she had heard the faint hint of longing in my voice and was afraid of how she could interpret this. Jane moved from her stool and around to where I was standing, placing her hands on both my shoulders, "Claire…please tell me that you are not seeing him….please….and.." Jane trailed off, now I was slightly frightened of Jane; she looked quite scared, I couldn't understand it. "Mam no…..Quill is my friend…" I began but upon seeing her sceptical expression I quickly changed what I was about to say, "I mean…I have a bit of a crush on him….but Mam it's silly it's something Hannah and I joke about…..I mean Mam he's quite handsome…that's just about it nothing to worry about…". I explained awkwardly, not knowing what to do with myself. Jane looked at me as though she was trying to figure out if what I was saying was true or not, and finally her expression softened slightly. "Alright then…so you're not seeing him…that's good…" Jane was patting my arms as though she were checking I was intact, it was by far one of the strangest conversations that I had ever had with my mother. But before I could talk to her any further she left the room leaving me standing there staring after her.

Reappearing few minutes later, "I just rang Emily…Sam can take you to look for a car…alright…" Jane said, her voice implying that there was going to be no arguments on the matter. "Alright that's fine….I'll just go grab my bag.." I finished making my way towards the kitchen door quickly. "Where do you think you're going?" Jane asked her eyebrow raised. "Well I thought that I was going to La Push…" I mumbled stupidly. Jane watched me for a minute before speaking, "No not today …Sam is coming here for you.." Jane supplied smiling smugly at me. I realised then that this was an attempt to stop me from going to La Push, I wanted to shout at her in frustration, although I couldn't really do that and get away with it. Jane would ground her and she wouldn't get out of the house for who knew how long.

"Fine then.." I said rather grumpily storming off into the sitting room, dumping my bag onto the couch, flicking on the TV when I sat down. Jane stayed in the kitchen, I thought that I could hear her muttering to herself but I ignored it, turning up the volume on the TV, Biffy Clyro were playing, it was an old song now, "Living is a problem because everything dies" and it was hardly ever played. Jane stopped at the door as she passed, looking at me for a moment before she shook her head disapprovingly, slinging her bag strap over her shoulder and heading out the door.

I sat there staring out the window as Jane's car pulled out of the driveway, feeling annoyed that I wasn't going to get to go to La Push, but completely confused as to what had just happened between Jane and I. Why had she suddenly started spouting on about Quill, how did she even know him?. From what I knew Jane had never spent that much time in La Push before we moved to England, but even if she had, Quill would have only been a teenager, why would Sam be hanging out with him then?. Yet again the conversation between Emily and I where she had warned me not to mention Quill to Jane popped into my head, she had said that it was because Jane wouldn't approve of me hanging out with men. But now that didn't seem like a good enough reason, especially to prompt such a reaction on Jane's part, it was like she had been afraid of him. What could Quill have done that would cause such a reaction from Jane, I dismissed this thought though, I trusted Emily and Sam, I was sure that their judgement was right and that Quill was safe to be around. Why else would they be so willing to let me hang out with him?

Once I thought about it though, I realised that Sam and Emily had been more than accommodating with my seeing Quill, keeping it from Jane always seemingly running into him when I was around. But then I realised that that idea was ridiculous, it was coincidence why would Sam and Emily do that, I was a teenager with a slightly intense crush why would they play to that. Quill was a lot older than me, there was no way that Emily would be encouraging my crush knowledgably, they probably always had Quill over. I had noticed that the other guys from the garage, were always calling by, or else Sam when he was free would be down at the garage with them. No this was all coincidence, Jane had simply been confused, and had gotten Quill mixed up with someone else, yes that would be it I thought, I was sure that Jane would soon realise her mistake. Until then I would just have to not mention any meetings that I had with the ever perfect Quill Artera.


	25. Chapter 25

Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight...as for myself I own this fan-fic:D

**Authors Note: Thanks for all the reviews!! I'm not going to beg for reviews I no you guys are reading the story from my stats which are bordering at around 12000 for this story and increasing by the day(yay) but I really really do appreciate them I love checking my emails and seeing that someone had taken their time to respond to something that I rambled on about and posted on the internet! :D**

**To answer questions...WishIwasBella781 I understand that you are annoyed and I appreciate the thoughts, but right now Claire is more concerned at having freedom to do the things that she wants and she is smart enough to know that if she pushes Jane she could stop this. Besides in the last chapter she was annoyed but Jane knowing Quill kind of stunned her into keeping quiet, that and Emily's warning she's really confused right now. Also you mentioned how Claire ought to say how she feels more at home in La Push, maybe if the fight were a little more intense it might have caused that kind of reaction but as it stands it wasn't. So you never know Claire might loose her temper at some stage...hehehe**

**Another thing I need to mention, I have a dreadful habit of spelling Quill with two L's which I know is wrong but my laptop changes it automatically and I just leave it like that because I tend to forget so apologies. Also I don't have the books with me, there both back home at my mothers house and I don't live there anymore and don't get back much so if I spell Atera or names like that wrong I apologise, there not names that you get here in Ireand very often! People here tend to have one of few surnames most of the people that I know are O' Sullivan...I proudly not being one of them (no offense I just like being different) **

**Right well I shall shut up now then and let you read the story! Please review good or bad! D**

Chapter Twenty-Four

I had been sitting on the couch for a while, mulling over everything, the T.V still blaring, playing a series of older songs like The Queens of the Stone Age , "No One Knows", and Sound-garden's "Black Hole Sun"; I was thoroughly enjoying the line up, which Susan if she was here would be sure to switch off. Another difference between us both, Susan had some strange aversion to music, I had never been able to understand it, if I didn't have music then I wouldn't have anything. It had been my saving grace many times when I was growing up and had found myself without anyone to talk to. It was playing so loudly that I barely heard the knock on the front door, it was when a smirking Reilly appeared at the window, frightening me half to death, that I quickly rose off the too comfortable couch to open the door.

Sam was looking around appreciatively at the house, as was Caleb, Reily on the other hand bounded forward and walked into the house past me, no invitation required. "Reilly!" Sam called sounding irritated, "You don't just barge into other people's houses like that you have to be invited first!" . Reilly who had made it as far as the living room door turned on the spot to look at his father, "But Dad we were invited remember?…besides she knew it was us if she didn't want us to come in then she wouldn't have opened the door!" Reilly explained, smiling wickedly at his father. Sam shook his head in disapproval, whilst Caleb rolled his eyes behind him. "It's fine Sam I don't mind make yourselves at home!" I smiled, Sam smiled back in response, "How are you today then Claire?….excited about looking for cars?". Sam asked as he wandered further into the house looking around him as he made his way . I smiled to myself at their interest in the house, I was sure they were making silent comparisons between their own house and this, I wondered if I should mention that I would pick their house over this one any day; but thought that I had best not in case it sounded conceited.

"I followed Sam as he walked into the kitchen, Caleb wandered along behind me, whistling lowly as we walked into the kitchen. "Claire you're kitchen is amazing he announced sounding thoroughly awestruck, wandering over to our oven and reading the different dials on it. "This place is amazing ….why have you been hiding it away from us for so long??" Reilly announced from the door leading into the kitchen, I laughed at this, enjoying his obvious enthusiasm. Sam seeming to remember the purpose of his visit, turned from the window in the kitchen to speak with me "Well then I think that we should probably get going now if we are going to see some cars" Sam declared smiling broadly at me his eyes were shining with evident excitement. "Any idea what you want to get Claire?" Caleb asked quietly from his place by the oven, which he had finished inspecting. I smiled and thought to myself about what kind of car I would like and couldn't really decide, "Well…I'm not exactly sure…I kind of want something different...something simple nothing flashy….I kind of like an older car probably second hand I think" I finished trying to picture different cars that I knew; which was very few as I didn't have a great knowledge when it came to cars. Reilly looked horrified at my decision, but Sam and Caleb seemed to think that I was on the right track, "I think that it shouldn't be too hard to get a second hand car.." Sam began, smiling to himself, I do know someone who is selling an old car of theirs…but I think we should check out some garages first too though.." Sam finished looking thoughtful.

"So shall we leave now then?" I asked, looking for a sign from Sam that he was with us, he seemed to be lost in his own thoughts. Sam looked up and seemed oddly startled, "Umm.. Yeah look you come out in a minute I need to call someone.." Sam explained pulling a small black cell phone from his pocket, and walking outside. Caleb had returned to looking at the oven and I laughed at his interest, "Tell you what Caleb you can come over some time I'll come get you and you can cook something if you like?" Caleb blushed and smiled nodding his head in approval. Reilly rolled his eyes at his brother, "You are so weird….I've never seen someone get all hot and bothered over an oven before you sure you're my twin?" he asked teasingly, Caleb scowled at Reilly before storming out past him the sound of a car door being slammed could be heard soon after.

"Reilly play nice!" I scolded moving into the living room to get my bag, Reilly laughed and threw an arm over my shoulder, smiling brightly at me. "What's wrong with you?" I asked suspicious of the expression that was growing on his face. Reilly laughed again, he had an infectious laugh it was a fast, broken laugh that shook his frame sounding too high for his voice, "Claire why so suspicious?…honestly it's not as though I would ever do anything worthy of worrying about!" he exclaimed feigning an expression of innocence, his voice sounding hurt at my suspicion. "Spit it out then Reilly!" I replied knowing that my cousin wanted something from me, I may not have known him for long but I had seen him pull this with everyone else when he wanted something and it usually worked too. Laughing again at my response Reilly spoke, "Look wouldn't you much rather get a nice new car…..one that you could be proud of driving around….maybe even giving you're dear cousin a ride in sometimes…or maybe leave drive occasionally.." Reilly finished his smile growing more pleading with every word.

I was divided between scolding him for wanting to drive my car without a licence, and laughing at his plea to use me as a personal chauffeur, considering what he had said I phrased my answer carefully. "Tell you what, whenever I'm in La Push I'll be more than happy to give you a ride of course I will, but no new shiny car that's not my style, but remember this family or no family you will not be driving my car, I've seen you on that dirt bike of yours and I will not put any car of mine through that no vehicle deserves that kind of punishment.." I finished looking at him seriously trying not to laugh. Reilly considered me for a moment, before eventually laughing again, this boy was continuously laughing, "Alright cuz….I guess that's fair but I'll have you know that my dirt bike is treated very well thank you!" he declared puffing his chest out proudly at this point.

I laughed at this display, before reaching out and ruffling his hair, "Come on then….we haven't all day you know!!" I teased before quickly shoving him out the front door and into Sam's car. Sam was smiling to himself still and humming a tune that I didn't recognise. "Happy much?/" I asked, studying his expression closely, Sam turned to me and smiled, "Course I'm spending the day with my lovely niece who I haven't seen in over a week and I am going to be spending the day looking for cars!" he replied, seeming thoroughly delighted at the prospect. I laughed and lowered myself further into my seat, happy and content for the first time in days.

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The shopping for cars hadn't been very eventful, Sam had driven to all the car dealerships in and around Port Angeles, not wanting to venture into the city much to my relief. Instead he had announced that we would go and see the friend that he had been talking about earlier, apparently the car would be perfect for me.

I hadn't been paying attention to where we were going for quite some time too busy laughing at Reilly's more outrageous stories. I marvelled in the fact that he could speak so openly in front of his parents, I didn't think that I could do that, Jane disapproved of most things that I did and Brian was never there anyway to talk to. It was when Sam was driving down a familiar street, that I noticed we were in La Push. I was about to ask where exactly this person was, when Sam turned up an unfamiliar lane, I looked out of the window curiously it was a tree lined avenue with a simple sand road. When we came through the end I saw a small but welcoming house, that reminded me of Sam and Emily's house, only it seemed to have been built more recently.

"I didn't know that Quill was selling a car?" Reilly spoke up from the back, looking curiously between the two front seats. Immediately I felt that familiar tug in my stomach, which up until then I had been putting down to hunger since I hadn't eaten which breakfast which was hours ago. Sam smiled into the rear-view mirror at Reilly, " Yeah he's selling the old Mustang…he never uses it anymore not with the truck so it's only taking up space now…" Sam said cheerfully. Sam's good mood reminded me of the morning trips to the garage, Sam had always been especially happy before taking me there and I couldn't help but be reminded of Jane's words. Quill always seemed to be thrown in my path by other people, almost as it seemed on purpose, but why would they do that?. I was becoming incredibly confused about this and knew that I should really talk to Emily about this, she was bound to give me an explanation I thought if I just pushed hard enough. Maybe they weren't doing anything at all and it had all been coincidence but that still didn't explain Jane's reaction to the knowledge that I knew Quill.

When I looked up at the house again, Quill was walking down the steps to greet us, Sam pulling to a stop a few feet from where Quill was standing. I felt my breath catch at the sight of him, he looked even better than I had remembered even though it had only been a week or so I realised that as foolish as it was I had missed him. I had to overcome this crush somehow, there was no way he liked me in that way, I repeated a little mantra in my head as I got out of the car, he's just my friend, he's just my friend…I tried to concentrate on this alone but when my hormone driven mind added on " yeah but he's still utterly gorgeous" I decided to stop and instead to concentrate on not looking like a complete fool.

"Hey guys!" Quill said cheerfully, smiling broadly at everyone, turning to Sam who was standing by me "So I hear that you are in the market for a second hand car then?" he asked glancing between Sam and I. I nodded feeling oddly dazed at seeing him, Quill grinned at my apparent inability to speak causing my heart to beat almost painfully against my chest, before he and Sam began walking around to the side of the house. I hadn't noticed before but the side of the house was directly beside the forest which spread out into Quill's lawn, a garage barely visible through the trees.

"So Claire no luck then in any of the car dealerships then?" Quill asked, holding back from Sam choosing to walk beside me instead, I nodded in reply before answering, "No luck no…they were all too….new I guess which is what Reilly seems to think would be perfect for me.." I added rolling my eyes at the thought. Quill laughed at this, "Has he asked you to be his chauffeur yet?" he asked looking amused, "Wait has he asked more than me then?" I asked trying not to laugh at the thought of Reilly propositioning Quill. Quill laughed again, a beautiful sound which was no help to my hearts erratic behaviour, "Asked…Claire he's asked just about everyone in La Push that knows him at this stage…well at least all the guys in the garage…" Quill continued to laugh as he spoke, "he even asked Stanley.." at this Quill laughed even harder, but the joke was lost on me, instead I just looked up at him quizzically. Quill to my delight leaned in closer to me and almost whispered in my ear taking away my breath for a moment, "Claire…Stanley doesn't even have a car.." Quill finished. It took a minute for this to register in my already flustered mind before I laughed awkwardly, a little too late. Quill smiled warmly at me then, before turning towards Sam who had opened the door to the garage himself.

"Make yourself at home then Sam!" Quill teased laughing at Sam's forwardness, Sam turned and blushed slightly, "Sorry I got a little carried away there didn't I… I just wanted to show Claire the car.." Sam finished stupidly, I got the impression that Quill's car was something that Sam considered to be ideal for me and was excited that he had thought of it himself. As Quill and Sam were talking I took my chance to peek around Sam and take a look at the car that he had been in such a rush to show me, when I saw it I instantly fell in love with it.

It was a deep bottle green, and had what appeared to be back faux leather seats, Sam noticed me looking at the car and took my arm bringing me closer to the car, "Don't be afraid to look Claire that's what we came for…Quill doesn't mind do you Quill?" Sam asked, an odd smile on his face. "Umm no of course not.." Quill mumbled walking around the other side of the car opposite me. I found it difficult to take my eyes of Quill as opposed to look at the car, but I finally forced myself to look inside, having been watching him describe something about the engine to Sam that I didn't understand. The interior was just as I had expected, slightly worn but still manageable, I liked the fact that the original radio was still in the car, a tape player as opposed to an mp3 or CD player. It was very clean, the only signs that it had been used was the speedometer which I noticed had clocked up considerable mileage in it's time, which I didn't mind in the slightest it only meant that the car was that little bit more interesting to me.

"So Claire what do you think of her?" Sam asked excitedly from my side where he was bouncing on the souls of his feet. I chuckled at the sight before answering, "Yes I really like it…I wouldn't mind taking it out for a test-drive first though.." I hinted feeling increasingly excited. If the car drove as well as it looked then I would definitely want to buy it, besides all of that Quill had once owned it, and that would in some stupid way to me feel like I had a piece of Quill all to myself in a way too. I blushed at this thought, imagining how horrifying it would be for anyone to be able to hear what I was thinking right then. Sam looked up at Quill questioningly, and Quill looked back his mouth hanging open, he didn't seem to have heard Sam at all, Sam raised an eyebrow at Quill and he quickly responded blushing I noticed, barely noticeable under his deep russet skin tone. "Yeah sure…no problem…do you want to.." Quill trailed off when Sam interrupted him, "No I think that I'll wait here and see what Caleb and Reilly are up to…after all it's your car you should be the one that shows Claire how it drives…point out any thing she needs to know and that kind of thing.." Sam trailed off smiling at Quill and I before waving "See you in a while then!" he called finally before heading towards the house where the sounds of Caleb and Reilly inside of Quill's house could be heard.

Quill watched after Sam for a moment, before turning to smile at me, "So ready to take her for a drive?" he asked waving the keys in the air. I smiled back at him, feeling excited at the prospect, both of driving the car and of being in such close proximity with Quill.


	26. Chapter 26

Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight.

**Authors Note: Thanks for the reviews! :D I decided not to let the uploading time between these two chapters be too long since (I apologise) this chapter is a little bit of a cliffy! :O **

**I have a question for you all though, I ask this for each of my fan-fics but do you think that this is getting a bit too long? I mean I know where I'm going with this and it is going to take a while before it's finished...if people think that it should end soon I would like to know so if you would go to my profile and vote that would be great!**

**Anyways enjoy the chapter and as usual review good or bad! :D**

Chapter Twenty- Five

The car drove just as well as I had imagined, I reveled in the ability to drive quickly without Sam telling me to constantly slow down. Quill, I noticed seemed perfectly at ease talking animatedly about the car and its advantages, I listened happily not caring what he was saying as long as I got to hear his voice, for the most part I wasn't sure what he was talking about anyway, Quill going into great detail about the engine. We were driving towards Fork's now, I knew that we should probably have stayed around La Push, but Quill had thought that it would be a good idea for me to get a better impression of the car than driving along the roads of La Push. I was occasionally looking around the car at the different features, when I noticed that there was a tape in the radio.

"What's the tape of?" I asked curiously, Quill had the same taste in music as me so I assumed that it would be something good. Quill who had been silent for a number of minutes, looked at me confusedly, I laughed at his expression, it was the same as the one he had worn when Sam had spoken to him earlier, "Umm sorry Claire what did you say?" he asked, shuffling his feet uncertainly. "I was just wondering what's the tape of?" I repeated smiling at him, he smiled back at me "What tape?" he asked, not even looking at the radio, I smirked at his still confused expression. "The one in the radio" I explained, amused by his sudden inability to follow the conversation. Quill glanced at the radio this time and looked back at me, before quickly doing a double-take, "It's nothing!!" he declared suddenly too loudly. I raised an eyebrow at this, "Nothing? …..really…" he muttered. I wondered what had caused this reaction and was suddenly curious, Quill was watching the tape somewhat apprehensively as thought it were something lethal that might suddenly attack him.

"Can I hear it then?" I asked innocently, the curiosity was getting the better of me. Quill looked as though he had been stung, "No!" he almost shouted at me, usually a move like that would have quieted me, but the look of horror that came with it canceled that out. What could be so bad about the tape that would cause such a reaction, without thinking, when we were on a straight stretch of road, I slowed down turning and looking up at Quill from under my eyelashes, "Please.." I asked, not expecting him to give him a positive answer. Quill's jaw dropped, and he stared at me before he composed himself, "Well…I mean …if you really want to.." he mumbled rather breathlessly. I smiled back at him, before quickly pushing the tape into the radio and pressing play. I turned the volume up too expecting not expecting to hear what was on the tape.

Britney Spears Toxic was now blaring from the radio, Quill's blush which had earlier been hardly noticeable was glaringly obvious now. "Quill what the hell!…" I exclaimed, finding it difficult to both speak and drive at the time, as I was laughing that hard at the unexpected music, recalling a conversation where Quill had ranted about how much he hated this kind of music. Quill shifted uncomfortably in his seat bringing his hand against his face, in an odd gesture that made it seem as though he was massaging his face. "I thought you hated this stuff?" I asked, barely able to contain the amusement in my voice, Quill glanced at me awkwardly looking adorably nervous. Without thinking about what I was doing, I reached out and ruffled his hair. It was just like every other time Quill had touched me, hugged me ,shook my hand, I could feel my temperature rise and quickly drew my hand back from his exceptionally soft hair. Quill's eyes had widened somewhat, and I quickly focused all my attention on the road again, cursing my impulsiveness, it was completely unlike me to do anything like that. However with a small cough Quill finally spoke, breaking the strange tension which had built up in the car from my action.

"Ummm… to be honest it's not my tape…" he began to explain, throwing him a quick glance I noticed that he was smiling, looking thoroughly amused, causing me to blush; he had found my movement funny. I didn't know why this upset me as much as it did, but I bit my lip to stop the tears which threatened to appear from streaming down my face, thanking the heavens that I had let my hair down today letting it hide my face; before forcing myself to listen what Quill was saying. "..It belongs to Suzette…that girl has strange taste in music…I forgot that she had left in the car.." he trailed off almost sadly.

Immediately I stiffened in my seat, Suzette…that was a girls name, I felt sick, Quill had a girlfriend after all, of course he did how could he not! Why had I trusted in what Hannah had said, not many people probably knew about her considering I had never heard her being spoken of before, it mad sense I thought Quill struck me as the private type, not wanting his business on display. Quill had stopped talking and I knew that I ought to answer him, and struggled to find my voice as I spoke, "You sound kind of sad….I take it you don't see her as much as you'd like?" I asked, not really wanting his answer hoping that I was wrong. I heard Quill sigh beside me and glanced quickly over at him, his face which had been animated earlier, smiling and laughing even when horrified when I noticed the tape had still been happy, but now it looked pained. I hated this girl already, if she was causing him any kind of pain, and gripped the wheel tightly until my knuckles whitened from the force.

"Yeah…never enough for my liking….she's away in New York…." I could hear him smile as he continued to speak, "she got into Berkley college she worked so hard to get there.." the pride in his voice was evident and I blanched from it slightly. Knowing that I should really answer him I decided to continue asking about Suzette, the sudden unexpected development. "So what is she studying there?" I asked forcing my voice to sound as politely interested as possible, when I really wanted to spit out the words with as much venom as possible. "Criminal studies…she's considering doing law afterwards but she's not entirely sure yet.." he laughed now before continuing, "she doesn't think that she would be clever enough for law but that's just her being ridiculous she has brains to spare!" he declared still sounding amused but proud at the same time.

I felt completely dejected at this point and was barely able to contain the tears, any thoughts that I had, had before now of asking aunt Emily about the strange behaviour that surrounded both myself and Quill had been abandoned. Why should I care now, he had a girlfriend it wasn't as though it was really important, even before now I knew that Quill would not have any interest in me, but at least then I could let my overactive imagination run away with me.

"Claire…are you alright?" Quill asked sounding slightly worried, I hadn't realised that he had been speaking until I felt his ever warm hand on my shoulder. I shrugged it off quickly trying to ignore my traitorous body's usual reaction, "Yeah I'm fine.." I practically snapped at him, "I think we had better get back though Sam's waiting and has some work he has to do.." I trailed off, heading now in the direction of La Push. Quill didn't answer and the rest of the journey was spent in complete silence on both parts, although Quill tried several times to strike up conversation again. I knew that I was being childish, I could hear the worry and hurt in his voice but I simply didn't trust myself to speak. If I were to suddenly burst into tears that would have been difficult to explain to say the least, no it was better this way, if I were to get over this crush that I had on Quill I had to stop trying to be his friend, it wouldn't work all it was going to do was hurt me, and that was something that I just didn't need.


	27. Authors Note 2

**Authors Note.**

Hi!! Sorry about the authors note but I had to let you all know when I would get to post again! Thank you for all the reviews by the way much appreciated, I'm glad that you liked it!! :D

Here's the thing I have exams this week, and I'm starting a new job in a bar as well as moving houses so I am going to have little or no time to write anything!! So you guys are going to have to wait for a week at **least** for my exams to finish and then I will upload whatever I can!! Thought that I ought to let you guys know what was happening with me instead of just disappearing again like the last time and at least you know that I will be back!! :D

As usual I'm going to answer the comments made! Claire's tendency for the dramatic...well she's sixteen, I know I was like that still am at times to be perfectly hounest...but the thing about being dramatic is that you tend to calm down eventually don't you?...:P

As for Suzette...well she took me by surprise too! I was literally writing the chapter and she just kind of came out of nowhere completely unplanned, she will be important for the story just probably not in the way that you guys are thinking! All will be explained in due time and I can only apologise again for the break that I have to take yet again!! Glad your all enjoying it though makes writing worthwhile! :D

Shazviv :D


	28. Not a chapter

**Authors Note**

Please don't hate me for another authors note!!

I am really sorry for the delay in uploading!! I never thought that it would take me this long to get my affairs in order but it's me so there we go! For those of you who have been with me from the beginning you probably notice that my life tends to take dramatic turns more often than I would like, well it's done it again! (yay for me) The bar that I started working in to pay my rent for the summer has now let go of staff and being one of the last in I was one of the first let go!! Understandable but very very annoying! Right now though that means that I am looking for a new job, and don't have time to write and any time that I do sit down to write I feel guilty so I can't get anything done!! :(

As soon as I am sorted which will hopefully be by the end of the week (fingers crossed) I will write again, I have scribbled down the occasional note so it won't take me long to write up the next chapters! Again sorry about this!! For those of you that wrote me the PM's this is my response to all of you, I simply didn't have the time to write to everyone so at least this way everybody knows! Thanks for your messages though! :D

Shazviv


	29. Chapter 29

Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight not me!

**Authorts note: Alright well I still haven't found work grrr...I hate that people tend to use your CV's for bar mats or something...it's the only reasonable conclusion that I can reach as to why I get no call backs!! Aghhhh (excuse the rant very frustrated at the moment...I'm a picky eater but a diet of toast and cheese is just plain ridiculous!)**

**Anyways having nothing to do and overcoming my guilt for having wrote anything I decided to go ahead and write, and I have wrote a few chapters which I will upload today!! I could upload one but I have been rubbish at doing that lately so I'm going all out!! It may not be some of my greatest work to date but it will get better again!! (Promise)**

**Thanks for all the wishes your all great! :D Cheered me up immensley...now for the bad news (wow I'm good at giving bad news lately) for those of you who read What Came Next...I'm a little at a loss with it at the moment...I mean I have a few chapters to be uploaded but I'm still not happy with them so don't expect to see anything at the very least until the end of this weekend. But I am working on it and shall do my best! Anyways hope all is well with everyone and please review as always good or bad! :D**

Chapter Twenty- Five

Q.P. O.V

The phone had woke me at about eight that morning, I cursed loudly at whoever was waking me on my day off. I had hardly slept that night having been on patrol for the majority of the night, looking out for any trouble. It had been months since our last encounter with any vampires, but we had learned over the years to keep an eye out in the papers for any unusual disappearances that couldn't be explained, there had been one outside of Seattle the week before. A young girl had been in her back yard playing on her swing set, her mother sitting on lounge chair opposite apparently reading a book, she could see her daughter and hear her laughing; but when the laughter had suddenly stopped and the woman looked up the girl was gone, the seat of the swing still moving. It wasn't as though it was likely that the supposed vampire was responsible for this, would come to La Push but we weren't willing to take any chances, I wasn't willing to take any chances not with Claire nearby; our patrols now extended to include her house.

"Hello.." I mumbled into the offending object, Sam's voice answered me barely hiding his excitement. "Quill you're up!" he exclaimed, "Well I am now.." I grunted in response, not being a very good morning person, which to my horror Sam was especially now when he was sounding so cheerful. Whenever I did get some sleep I relished it and I did not appreciate being woken, no sooner had this thought registered than I panicked why was Sam ringing was Claire alright?. "Sam what's wrong.. Is Claire alright?...I Sam" I had sat up in the bed quickly as Sam interrupted me.

"Quill please relax! Claire is fine I'm actually at her place right now... " Sam replied cheerfully, sounding faintly amused at my panicking, I felt like growling down the phone at him, he knew exactly how I felt considering his own bond with Emily, then again he didn't have to endure a fourteen year separation from his imprint. "Right so...well why are you calling me then?" I questioned unable to hold back the petulant tone that I knew my voice was taking. Sam chuckled at my response, "Well Quill I was just wondering if you were still selling your car?" he asked the annoying amused tone still there. I sighed at the sound of it before becoming curious about what he had to say, "Yeah I am why?" I asked wondering if this concerned Claire in some way.

"It's just that I'm over here at the moment getting ready to take Claire out to get a car...Jane called this morning asking me to and I have a few hours free so I said I'd take her and I knew that you were selling yours so.." Sam trailed off his voice thick with implications. I brightened at the thought of being able to help Claire out, I knew that she was into vintage things, nothing new and shiny as Claire had called a BMW that had been in the garage one day. "Right yeah definitely... when are you coming by?" I asked unwrapping myself from my blankets wondering whether or not I had any clean t-shirts left in my wardrobe. Sam laughed again, "Not right away about mid-day I think...we actually have to go check out some dealerships first in case there might be something she'd like...but from what I've seen lately there really isn't.." he finished. I smiled broadly at this, instantly knowing that Sam was right, there were only three close by, all of which had your basic a to b car, nothing interesting or of any note. "Alright then well I'll see you both then" I finished beaming at the idea of Claire calling by. "See you later then Quill!" Sam's phone going dead about two seconds later.

The next few hours were spent in cleaning the house, not that it was particularly untidy, but I didn't want anything to be out of place for when Claire called by for the first and hopefully not the last time. I checked on the car too, quickly pulling out some magazines that were scattered over the backseat belonging to Brady, the boy never picking anything up after him. I rarely drove the car anymore and had wanted to sell it for a while now, never really getting down to putting an add in the paper for it, it spent most of its time sitting in the garage being driven a few times a month if it was lucky.

The sound of a car approaching could be heard when I went back into the kitchen to recycle the magazines, shoving them unceremoniously into the press without even looking at where they landed, I quickly went outside to meet them. Claire was in the passenger seat glancing around at the house, her eyes finally settling on me, I noticed that she looked a little flustered by something, and smiled broadly at at her as she stepped from the car. "Hey guys!" I called out my voice sounding ridiculously happy even to me. Sam smirked at me, obviously recognising my enthusiasm, before Sam decided to say anything I quickly spoke up glancing at Claire every few seconds not being able to keep my eyes off her for too long.

"So I hear that you are in the market for a second hand car then?" Claire nodded in response, looking thoroughly flustered, worry flooded through me, until the thought came to me that maybe it was my presence that made her flustered. Immediately a stupid grin stretched across my face, Sam started walking towards the garage, I walked along beside him quickly until I noticed that Claire was trailing along a little further behind us. Sam nodded slightly in my direction, telling me to get back to Claire, which was completely unnecessary as I had already slowed down, letting Claire catch up. "So Claire no luck in any of the car dealerships then?" I asked hoping that she had overcome her shyness. Claire nodded in response before answering, "No luck no...they were all too...new I guess which is what Reilly seems to think would be perfect for me.." she finished rolling her eyes, looking utterly adorable. I laughed at her reaction to Reilly's pestering, just about everyone that knew Reilly was aware of his obsession with cars, I personally blamed Embry the pack member that Reilly spent the most time with outside of his father. Embry had never really left Sam and Emily's place, always calling by even after Sam had retired, so Reilly grew up with Embry as a permanent fixture. Sometimes the resemblance between the two of them was uncanny, the interests, the attitude, Reilly was exactly the same as Embry was at his age, only he would most likely grow out of it, Embry on the other hand had no excuse for having remained the same.

"Has he asked you to be his chauffeur yet?" I asked the conversation flowing easily now, Claire looking visibly relaxed. "Wait has he asked more than me then?" Claire asked her sounding adorably surprised, I burst out laughing, finding it difficult to answer her continuing to laugh as I spoke, , "Asked...Claire he's asked just about everyone in La Push that knows him at this stage...well at least all the guys in the garage...he even asked Stanley". At this point I laughed louder than before, remembering the day when Reilly had sauntered up to Stanley who had only just started there that day and showered him with questions, finally settling on the one he said was the most important, "Did he have a car and if he did could he use it sometime!"; much to the amusement of everyone there considering that Stanley didn't even have a car. Claire looked at me now looking completely confused her eyebrows bunched together, she looked so beautiful just then but I wanted to see her smile and I wanted to be the one to to do it, without even thinking I leaned in and whispered, "Claire...Stanley doesn't even have a car..". Claire stood there for a moment looking completely stunned, her confused expression replaced by a wide-eyed one a blush quickly spreading across her cheeks, she laughed then a little too late which I could tell embarrassed her but I just smiled and pretended not to notice.

Finally paying attention to anyone besides Claire, I noticed that Caleb and Reilly had disappeared presumably into my house, whilst Sam had wandered ahead and was opening the door to my garage. "Make yourself at home then Sam!" I teased, laughing as he turned around and blushed, "Sorry I got a little carried away there didn't I... I just wanted to show Claire the car.." Sam muttered shuffling on the spot before launching into a discussion about the good and bad points about the car. Claire stood back again like before not seeming to know whether or not she should come closer, but before I could say anything, Sam went forward and took her by the arm "Don't be afraid to look Claire that's what we came for...Quill doesn't mind do you Quill?". Sam finished grinning at me knowingly, I cursed him for being so obvious mumbling in response "Umm no of course not..".

I watched as Claire walked around the car, a smile slowly spreading across her face, I knew she would like the car it was a mustang hatchback, when I had bought it the last owner had crashed it destroying some of the framework, and putting deep scratches into the paneling, meaning I had to completely restore her. It had taken me almost two years to get her into the condition that she was in now, wanting to use only original parts, I didn't see the point in owning a vintage car if it was covered in modern parts, how could you even call it vintage then. But as proud as I was of the car, it was wasted on me, the thought of Claire owning it made me incredibly happy, I knew this way that it was going to a good home, with someone that deserved it.

Sam interrupted my musings, asking Claire about whether or not she liked the car, Claire chuckled at Sam who was practically bouncing about the place he was so happy. "Yes I really like it...I wouldn't mind taking it out for a test-drive first though.." Claire answered, blushing yet again. I was watching her and not paying any attention to what Sam was doing, until I noticed Claire glancing between the two of us, Sam's eyebrow was raised questioningly, when I realised that my mouth was hanging open, it was my turn to blush this time, trying to pretend nothing had happened I decided to offer Claire a test-drive. "Yeah sure...no problem...do you want to.." Sam interrupted me before I could finish, "No I think that I'll wait here and see what Caleb and Reilly are up to...after all it's your car you should be the one that shows Claire how it drives...point out any thing she needs to know and that kind of thing.." he trailed off before smiling and waving, "See you in a while then!" he added as he walked towards the house, where I could swear I heard the sound of glass breaking.


	30. Chapter 30

Disclaimer: Twilight is not mine...never has never will be...

**Authors Note: Here's the next chapter that I promised you all I hope you like it and as I said before please review good or bad! :D**

Chapter Twenty-Six

Q.P.O.V

Claire turned out to be quite a good driver, I assumed she would be to pass her driving test, but I didn't expect to feel nothing but confidence in her ability, it took me a while to realise that I felt proud of her. When we had driven around most of the back roads of La Push, I quickly suggested driving into Forks. I knew that she had a good enough handle on how the car drove now, and I had filled her in on all the important things, like the fuel door which despite all my attempts sometimes decided it didn't feel like opening simply refusing to budge; but I didn't want her to go just yet. I was trying to make my time with her last as long as possible, savouring it feeling thoroughly greedy, but not caring about that in the slightest.

I was watching Claire glance around the car, her long lashes grazing along the top of her cheeks sometimes when she blinked, the way she let her hair fall down like a curtain between us trying to hide her blush whenever she was embarrassed. "What's the tape of?" Claire asked suddenly, taking me out of my absent minded daydreaming, feeling a little awkward and embarrassed I shuffled my feet. "Umm sorry Claire what did you say?" I asked, not having paid attention to what Claire had been saying. Claire smiled broadly at me "I was just wondering what's the tape of?" she repeated patiently, not seeming to mind that I wasn't paying proper attention. "What tape?" I asked confused again about what she was talking about, since when did I leave tapes lying around the car. Claire smirked at me this time, apparently finding my confusion funny, "The one in the radio" she supplied, an amused tinge to her voice. A wave of dawning comprehension washed over me then, quickly glancing at the radio I saw the tape Claire was talking about, Suzette's.

"It's nothing!" I practically screamed at her, I had completely forgotten about that damned tape, the last time that Suzette had been home she had taken great pleasure in forcing me to listen to it as I drove her around. Suzette knew exactly what buttons to push to annoy me, one of her favourite pastimes she had declared once when she was about seven, and had maintained from that time onwards. I usually didn't mind that much, as long as it kept her happy I was content in letting her have her fun, it wasn't as though she was malicious or anything, it was your typical little sister syndrome. Now with Claire in the car for the first time I was actually annoyed at Suzette, I really didn't want her to hear it, it wasn't as though it was that bad, but I had told her so much about how much I hated pop music, and I really didn't want her to think that I was a hypocrite. Apart from that the fact that I even had the tape in my car was mortifying enough as it was.

Claire was glancing at me sceptically her eyebrow raised, "Nothing...really.." I muttered hoping that she would let it go. "Can I hear it then?" Claire asked sweetly, my immediate reaction was to shout in response, "No!" it might have been a slight over reaction but it didn't seem to bother Claire that much, I was already feeling guilty for shouting at Claire and was about to apologise when I saw what she was doing. Turning to me in the driver seat, Claire looked up at me from under her lashes, taking my breath away for a moment, I forced myself to pay attention to what she was saying to me, my jaw dropping slightly in surprise. "Please..." she asked quietly, now glancing back and forth between me and the straight stretch of road that we were on. "Well...I mean ...if you really want to.." I finally managed to mumble, my voice sounding very breathy even to me, Claire beamed at me then making me forget for a moment what I had been worrying about, becoming too lost in her beauty.

Claire pushed in the tape, smiling broadly at me, I felt my face heat up immediately even before the music started, and watched Claire's eyes widen in surprise, her mouth opening and closing once or twice before she finally regained the ability to speak. "Quill what the hell!.." she shouted at me, bursting out laughing at the same time, slowing down the car. All I could do was shift rather uncomfortably in my seat, bringing my hand to my face, in a gesture that I didn't know whether was to wipe away or to hide my blush. "I thought you hate this stuff?" she asked her voice breaking a little straining not to laugh at me. I didn't know what to say instead I just glanced over, hoping that Claire would somehow understand that it wasn't my tape from my expression, my horrified expression ought to have been enough. Then Claire did something that I did not expect, reaching across her arm and ruffling my hair, I felt a jolt run through me at the unexpected contact my eyes widening in surprise. Claire quickly pulled her hand back, far too quickly for my liking not saying a word, looking slightly embarrassed about her actions.

When I realised that Claire didn't intend on speaking again, I decided to break the silence and explain the tape to her, anything to keep her talking I didn't want her to feel awkward, but I couldn't stop the smile that had spread across my face. I coughed quietly to break the tension that had built up in the car before speaking, "Ummm...to be honest its not my tape..." I began, seeing Claire glance over before quickly blushing. "..It belongs to Suzette...that girl has strange taste in music...I forgot that she had left in the car.." I finished, feeling a pang at the memory, it had been far too long since I had seen her, she couldn't afford to travel home from New York very often and the last time I had seen her was at Christmas.

I sensed Claire stiffen in her seat beside me, I wondered what was wrong but when I glanced in her direction her hair had fallen down covering her face from me. "You sound kind of sad...I take it you don't see her as much as you'd like?" Claire finally spoke, her voice sounding oddly strained. I wondered what I had said that had upset her, maybe she was missing her own sister, I thought, she had heard me talk about my sister before but I hadn't really gone into any detail at the time, Sam having interrupted me. I sighed feeling my face fall, Claire was worried about me being sad, that wasn't what I wanted, she needn't worry about me I needed to change the mood, smiling now as I spoke, "Yeah...never enough for my liking...she's away in New York..." I began. Claire spoke then before I could continue, "So what is she studying there?" she asked politely, her voice sounding a little different than earlier. "Criminal studies...she's considering doing law afterwards but she's not entirely sure yet.." I paused laughing at her reasons as to why not to do law, ""she doesn't think that she would be clever enough for law but that's just her being ridiculous she has brains to spare!" I finished proudly. Suzette deserved everything she got, she worked so hard at everything that she did, and usually got anything that she set her mind to.

My attempt at changing the mood had failed, Claire had yet to speak and was sitting ramrod straight in the seat her face still hidden behind her hair. "Claire ...are you alright? I asked rather uncertainly, reaching out and putting my hand on her shoulder. Almost as soon as I had done it Claire quickly shrugged it off, "Yeah I'm fine..." she snapped, showing the contrary, "I think we had better get back though Sam's waiting and has some work he has to do.." she finished, turning the car in the direction of La Push.

Nothing I said on the way back to my house made a difference, Claire simply refused to talk, shrugging or giving monosyllabic answers, stubbornly ignoring my attempts at conversation. I couldn't understand it, everything had been fine until the tape had been played, I doubted that was the reason behind Claire's sudden mood change and wracked my brain for some way to explain what had just happened. Sam could be seen in the yard as we pulled up into my yard, throwing a football with the twins, Claire had barely turned off the ignition before she was out of the car, slamming the door behind her. I stared after her as she made her way over to Sam, I could hear her tell him that she wasn't feeling well and wanted to go home now if he didn't mind taking her. Sam nodded in response, "Sure sure Claire...why don't you just go wait in the car.." he trailed off glancing over at me suspiciously.

"Bye Claire!" I called as she made her way to the car, one of the twins in a sweet gesture placing an arm around her shoulder guiding her there, I assumed to be Caleb. Claire simply waved her arm after her in goodbye, before getting into the backseat, beside her cousin. Sam was arguing with Reilly, telling him to get back to the car, wanting to talk to me in private. I mentally checked myself again, I hadn't done anything to Claire that I thought warranted this behaviour, and worried that Sam would become reluctant to let me spend time with Claire. Sam walked forward purposefully putting his arm on mine, dragging me further away from his own car, until we were standing beside my own again.

"What happened to Claire...Quill what did you do to her?" Sam asked in rushed tones, glancing over towards the car every few moments. "Nothing!" I exclaimed angrily, "One minute we were fine talking and laughing and next thing I know she got upset about something and refused to speak to me...Sam I really didn't mean to upset her I mean...I don't even know what I did...or if it was even me.." I trailed off, not sure of what more I could say. Sam stared at me for a moment longer probably considering whether or not to believe me, before eventually deciding what I said was the truth. "Alright Quill look I'm just going to take Claire home and see if I can figure this out..." turning to leave he paused for a moment before adding, "I'm sure that whatever it is Claire will get over it soon so...don't...at least try not to worry too much.." Sam added smiling sympathetically at me before walking quickly to his car. Leaving me alone standing in my driveway completely at a loss to what had just happened.


	31. Chapter 31

Disclaimer: Twilight is not mine

**Authors Note: usually I wait for reviews before uploading again but not this time and I'm finding it really weird!! So I am going to stop with this chapter now and not to be one of those people who refuse to upload without a certain number of reviews...but I would really appreciate a few to cover the chapters I upload today just to let me know how you all liked it!! Alright well thanks and enjoy...the next chapter is Claire's first day at school this is a sort of prequel to it...kind of lol :P**

Chapter Twenty-Seven

C.P.O.V

It had been three weeks since I had seen Quill. I hated that I could count the days since I had last seen him, I hated that every time I went to sleep my dreams revolving around him in some way; I hated that every time I sat down to write something I would end up drawing eyes, eyes that resembled Quill's eyes remarkably. I knew I was probably being overly dramatic about the entire thing, but for some reason I felt that this entire thing was incredibly important, I couldn't shake the irrational urge and I found that it was growing by the day. Instead of feeling a little better and having my mind wander off into thoughts other than that of Quill, it stubbornly refused to do as I wished. A crush, that's all it was I told myself, nothing less nothing more just some stupid crush that had gotten out of hand. I had to forget that Quill was so close to my vision of what the perfect man would be like, interested in the same things as me, he always seemed to know exactly what to do and say to make me feel relaxed, his presence alone both calmed me, made me feel safe and drove me crazy all at the same time.

My miserable state had seeped into everything, I was beginning to notice that my asthma was reappearing again too. It had been so good lately, that I had taken to leaving my inhaler in my car as opposed to carrying it around in my bag everywhere with me. Jane had mentioned it to me a few times, but when I had told her about how I didn't really need to use it all that much anymore she had seemed surprised and instead of the usual tirade of questions that would follow from such a revelation she had accepted it and had become quite thoughtful. But now it was returning again, no where near the degree that it had been when I was in England but a few times a week I would feel my breathing becoming a little more difficult, making me nervous enough to carry my inhaler around with me more often. I doubted that I could feel more miserable even if I tried, and because I was determined to avoid Quill at all costs it meant that I had to limit my trips to La Push, where I knew that I was bound to run into him.

Jane had been surprised at my sudden change of heart, when I became reluctant to visit La Push, if I went there Jane was always with me, her and Emily were becoming better friends now that we were living closer to one another. I could tell that Jane was missing some of her friends from London, and now she had her sister to talk to, and even if she wasn't the same, I think that Emily was the person she really needed to talk to. Unlike some of the women Jane would associate with back home, Emily actually cared, and was unconcerned about the superficial things that Jane's friends would drone on about, the newest fashion trends from Milan, new fad diets; something that Claire heard about on a daily basis growing up. Claire wasn't fooling herself into thinking that Jane was becoming some kind of different person spending more time with Emily, if anything it made Jane more resolute in staying the same, trying to encourage Emily into sampling the finer things in life. But Emily was like Jane resolute in remaining the same also, probably one of the main reasons they had fought for so long; both being so stubborn.

I had decided not to get Quill's car, as much as I had liked it, I decided that it would only serve as a reminder of him, and had agreed to get a second hand car from the second dealership that we had visited. The car was nothing special, a Toyota Corolla that had low mileage and a CD player, it was a faded shade of blue that I didn't really like, but considering that school started soon I couldn't afford to be picky. Sam had seemed particularly disappointed at my decision, encouraging me to get Quill's car, I had used the excuse of finding the steering difficult to use as the car did not have power steering, which was a lie the car had driven like a dream and it made me slightly miserable when I was driving my own car, whose steering wheel liked to lock every time I made a sharp right turn. Reilly had taken to ringing me looking for a ride every now and again, I sometimes agreed to it depending on the time of day he needed it. When I knew that Quill would be at work during the middle of the day, I had no problem calling by, Emily was always delighted to see me, inviting me to stay the evening for dinner. I always refused though not wanting a repeat performance of the first day that I had called over alone, and ended up sitting next to Quill, my excuse was always that I didn't like to drive too late in the evening as I didn't like driving in the dark, an excuse that was hard to use considering how bright it was during the summer evenings.

School was beginning the next day and I was in my room sorting through my new books, leaving everything to the last minute as usual, shoving everything unceremoniously into my bag. Jane had picked up my uniform for me, it was a grey pleated skirt, a white blouse and a navy v-neck sweater. I had been horrified at first at the prospect of having to wear it, I did not like wearing skirts, they were a pet peeve of mine but a non-negotiable par of the uniform. I was allowed to wear black tights with the skirt which was a small consolation, along with black shoes, that was the only part of the uniform I didn't mind, having a pair of all black converse that would do the job nicely.

"Claire are you ready for tomorrow?" Jane asked from her bedroom door, I jumped in response not having heard her approach. "Umm...yeah I'm just finishing up now I have a few more things that I need to put in.." I said, packing the books that were lying beside me on the floor into my bag. Jane raised an eyebrow at me, looking around the room sceptically at the piles of discarded stationary and books, "Well I'll wake you in the morning before work then I suppose, but you really ought to get some sleep soon it's getting late.." Jane trailed off turning to leave, "Oh and Claire...have a good day tomorrow.." she finished, glancing quickly over her shoulder before walking off down the hall. I stopped what I was doing looking after her as she walked away, I hadn't expected that from her, usually she quite easily ignored everything that went on in my life, not bothering to concern herself with it. Maybe Emily was rubbing off on her more than I had thought she possibly could. I smiled at the thought, it was moments like these that Claire could actually imagine the two of them being sisters.

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True to her word Jane had appeared at her door bright and early that morning, without so much as a warning or any words at al in fact she turned on the lights, and ripped the blanket off the bed, despite my mumbling protests. It was definitely the perfect example of a rude awakening. Gone was the mother from the night before, who had wished me a good day at school, back was the mother that made it her personal mission to appear unconcerned. Dragging myself out of bed, I got dressed slowly, every movement feeling sluggish, not having gotten much sleep the night before. Usually I wouldn't wake up from my dreams, instead they would last all night, it was only in the morning that I would wake and remember that I had, had them which would infinitely put me in a bad mood. But no that had not been the case last night, from about two in the morning until three there had been some dog outside the house howling. I had cursed it, getting out of bed and turning on my light to see where it was hoping that I might frighten it away.

Instead when I had appeared at the window, the howling had stopped for a moment and changed to what I thought was a remorseful tone. It had sounded so human like in a warped way that I had stood there and listened to it for far longer than was necessary, feeling the odd compulsion to go outside and comfort the creature. The animal suddenly stopped when the lights of the security car, came by obviously someone had rang complaining about the noise and they were coming to check it out. I thought that I had seen a glimpse of dark brown fur, on some animal that seemed far too big to be a dog, closer to a bear in fact but shaped differently as it disappeared into the forestry by my house, but decided that I was imagining things. It was probably the lack of sleep I reasoned, the shadows from the lights playing tricks on me.

Turning off the lights and climbing back into bed, I heard the animal howl once more and the pain that I thought that I heard in the sound caused my heart to pound almost painfully in my chest, my breathing becoming unsteady. There I went being completely illogical again, getting upset over some animal howling outside of my house, grabbing my inhaler and taking two puffs from it to steady my breath, I fell back into my pillows. Dreaming again, not just about Quill now, but about an oversized dark brown animal, one that was in pain one that I seemed to know, one that I wanted to comfort. Sometimes I really hated my imagination.


	32. Chapter 32

**Authors Note:So heres the next chapter like I promised!! It would have been up sooner if it wasn't for my University's decision to close absolutely every place on campus with a computer!! Grrrr My new house has yet to have internet installed...very annoying! **

**Thank you for the reviews!! :D I'm glad that people are enjoying the story so far!! As for the reviews which I always comment on...one question was how old were Quil and Claire in my story...well I knew that Claire was sixteen at least but now that I think of it I think that her birthday will be soon...:P Quil on the otherhand is if my addition is correct (which its probably not-numerically dyslexic so even the damned calculator gets on my nerves so excuse any mistakes with numbers...it would also explain why all of my charachters hate maths...and Claire's story about a primary school teacher (elementary school I think in the US) actually happened to me..more than once embarassing) I think that he is about thirty-one , thrirty-two at the very oldest. If he was sixteen when he imprinted on Claire that would make it sixteen years later but I think that he's thirty-one personally. I know that my brother is two and a half years younger than me but depending on the time of the year (and my mood) I can say he's three years younger like right now he's 16 (17 next week :O) and I'm 19 so...yeah that was a very long rant about a simple question! Thanks for the Kosocielo! :D**

**I'm glad that people understant that I don't want to jump into the romance because that just dosen't work for me...I can see the story and how it plays out in my mind and it will be a little while before they get up to anything romantic with one another so I'm sorry to dissapoint people! I', a sucker for the build up and the story around the couples!  
**

** This is Claire's first day at her Oak Falls Academy. I'm not really sure yet how big a part this place will play in the story bar a few certain points ;) so I gave a rather brief description I think but I hope that you like it all the same, I'll upload again soon.**

**Please review as always good or bad!! :D**

**P.S. I forgot about the question of wether or not it was Quill outside CLaire's window and the answer is obviously yes! The guy has to figure some way out to see her and luckily for him he turns into awolf at will! :D  
**

Chapter Twenty- Eight

C.P.O.V

I had only been in school for less than an hour and I was already in trouble. Apparently they were a little more strict on the uniform than I had first predicted. My shirt which I had left un-tucked was hanging out below the hem of my jumper was apparently inappropriate, as were my converse which were not permitted in the school. The shirt I could deal with but I had no intention of loosing my converse because some jumped up teacher had nothing better to do than pick on me about my shoes. It was my maths teacher that had first noticed, a small middle aged woman with a very strange perm who had taken an instant dislike to me for some reason unbeknownst to me, I think that it was an innate thing with all maths teachers for them to sense who was good and who was bad at their subject, singling out the ones that they felt were deserving of their attention; I was definitely not one of them. So I accepted the woman's dirty little looks that she threw me throughout the class, ignoring them and the other curious glances that I received from the people in the class. When the class had finished, she pulled me aside telling me that she wanted to give me some teacher -student advice, which turned out to be a lecture about my uniform. I could tell that this was not a class I was going to enjoy, my hatred of maths, blending with my dislike from the nasty permed teacher whose name I simply could not remember, not having aid attention to a word she was saying.

It was something I was used to, any subjects that I didn't like I simply blocked them out. Biology, home-economics and maths, maths in particular being a particular hatred of mine. I hated maths with a burning passion, one of my primary school teachers in frustration at not being able to make me understand long division had proclaimed that I was hopeless, in turn causing me to cry in front of the entire class. The rest of my classes before lunch were nothing special, I was growing accustomed to the stares that I was getting from the other students, I realised how big a deal it must have been for them to have a new student. From what I knew this school had a elementary school complex at the other side of the school, so it was safe to assume that the students here had grown up together and gone to school here all their lives. The only problem I found was that the school, being as large as it was made it near impossible to find any of my classes on time. The one place that I had no problem in finding was the canteen, the relative swarm of people heading in that direction was a pretty good giveaway as far as I was concerned.

The canteen was quite big, there was a few different food counters from which to choose from, salad bars and international food, which from what I could tell from the signs changed on a daily basis. Today was Japanese cuisine, I could see people eating with chopsticks scattered around the place. Quickly grabbing a plate of sushi and paying for it, I sat down at an unoccupied table, hoping that no one would decide to come over and keep me company. I needn't have worried, apparently the students were more interested in watching me than actually speaking with me, I guessed that it probably had something to do with my lack of labels. Most of the girls had ridiculously expensive bags sitting at their feet, I could recognise a few, my knowledge of fashion being surprisingly limited, despite Jane's best attempts to interest me, there were Louis Vuiton, Dolce & Gabbanna and a few others that I recognised but couldn't remember the name for. I looked down at my own trusty old grey messenger bag and shrugged, I didn't see the point in paying a fortune on a bag that I was using to go to school with. To be hounest I couldn't see the point in paying too much for any kind of bags, all of the expensive ones tended to look rather ugly to her, garish even.

I continued to muse over this while I ate my Sushi, taking my notebook out of my bag, doodling an interesting arch that surrounded the window frames. "Those are pretty good!" a voice came from behind me, I froze mid-stroke, glancing up through my hair at the person that had spoken, it was a friendly looking woman that I assumed was a teacher due to he lack of uniform. She was quite tall, with long red hair which she had half scooped up; her face was warm and welcoming, and I thought that she looked quite pretty her glasses though didn't really suit her very well, having to push them up her nose every few moments, slipping further down each time she took her hand away. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to intrude...I just wanted to say hello and welcome you to the school I'll be your History teacher Ms De Luca.." she trailed off offering me her hand to shake. Immediately I decided I liked the woman, she just seemed to radiate this friendly slightly erratic charm, I took her hand and shook it smiling back at her. "Thanks...and I don't mind it's just some doodling.." I trailed off, hoping that she would change the direction of the conversation. To my relief she seemed to understand that I didn't really want to talk about this, and smiled warmly at me, "So Claire isn't it?..." she paused for a second while I nodded in response before continuing, "How are you finding your day here so far?" she asked continuing to smile at me. "Not bad...I'm just trying to find my way around really.." I answered not knowing what else to say to her, when all I really wanted to say was I was hating it and wanted nothing more than to go home and crawl under my blankets. Probably reading my reluctance to talk, Ms De Luca smiled once more, "Well I'll leave you to your lunch...I'll see you again later in class.." she added, I wondered whether it was some kind of precaution, to let me know she would realise if was missing. As she smiled again before leaving, I quickly dismissed the thought, she didn't strike me as the type of teacher who went about the place warning students.

Leaving the lunch room I saw a number of people watching me with curious expressions, but like earlier I choose to ignore them, not wanting to draw any further attention to myself y staring back at them. The rest of my day went much the same, each class being the same as the last, except for biology, where the teacher a portly man who seemed to answer to the name of Griggs, forced me to stand in front of the rest of the class and tell them about myself. I had blushed furiously standing before the rest of the class, having to stand at the front of the class at Grigg's insistence, where I hid slightly behind my long fringe, mumbling my name and telling everyone that I had just moved here from London. Griggs had asked me curiously about London for a few moments longer, wanting to know what part I was from, and asking me if it was true that the lines for the London eye were always as long as they were said to be. I could tell that it as somewhere that he wanted to visit from the wistful expression he got while asking me those questions, but I wanted nothing more than for him to just shut up and let me go back to my seat.

My last class of the day wasHistory, Ms De Luca greeted me with a bright smile as I entered the class, pointing towards a seat near the front for me to sit at, as I had arrived late getting lost yet again. I was pleasantly surprised when I actually enjoyed the class,History had always been one of my favourite subjects, but Ms De Luca had a really good teaching method, where I tended to forget that I was actually in a classroom, the way she sounded so passionate about what she was talking about at all times; her expression eager, always trying to incite interest from each of the students in the class. It was only our first day but we covered the founding factors for the Salem witch trials, Ms De Luca opting to cover the course at will rather than giving out a regulated syllabus like the rest of the teachers; her argument being that we should learn what we want when we wanted.

Despite the stares and largely boring classes that I attended I decided that overall my first day at Oak Falls Academy, could have been worse, I would just have to wait and see what tomorrow would bring.


	33. Yet another authors note

Another Authors Note

Please don't hate me for my lack of updates!! I had a rather nasty fall down the stairs (I'm clumsy like you wouldn't believe) a few weeks ago and managed to break a bone in my foot, and broke two fingers in my left hand and tore some muscles in my right arm...yeah clumsy! I haven't been able to get out of the house for a while because I couldn't work the crutches with the hands...it also made typing quite difficult but anywhoo I plan on updating as soon as possible not today though I'm afraid a very nice friend offered to put this notice up for you all I'm still at home without internet using her as my scribe typing with one finger or your little finger and thumb is really awkward and kinda wierd to be hounest!

Anyways I hope to be free again by next week so I shall hopefully be able to upload myself then my adorable friend (I'm going to keep praising her) won't upload for me for the simple reason that she is very confused by my instructions so sorry!

Hope your all well and aren't too annoyed!!

Shazviv


	34. Chapter 34

Chapter Twenty-Nine

**Alright I know that it has been an exceedingly long time since I last uploaded and I am really really sorry! I wanted to upload sooner but I was suffering from a serious case of writer's block there were about five different ways it could go and I couldn't decide and trying to incorporate everything was not working but now I have settled on something that I am happy with and I'm sticking to it! **

**I'm uploading three chapters today and I hope that you enjoy them! (If you can even remember the story and aren't looking blankly at the screen saying when did I ever read this!)**

C.P.O.V

Another week had passed by, I was now getting used to my daily routine of going to school each day again after what felt like an eternity of summer. Jane who had at first seemed happy at my lack of complaints about the school, was beginning to get slightly annoyed at my lack of feedback, finding my silence in general to be annoying. But the truth was that there was nothing much to report, I went in each day and went to my classes, the curious glances now having ceased to the occasional glance in my direction when I was asked a question in class. The only highlight to my day was History class, where Ms De Luca, as always would in what seemed liked an effortless manner gain my undivided attention.

Along with my daily school routine, there was another daily occurrence that I was growing accustomed to, the animal outside at night howling behind the house. Every night at two in the morning, you could set your watch to it, the animal would appear at the forest edge, only a silhouette amongst the trees being too far away from the lights of the house, or torch which I had tried on the third night. It was strange the animal seemed highly aware of what was going on, it felt to me as though it was there to see me. I knew that was ridiculous, illogical even, but I couldn't't shake the feeling that the animal came each night to see me. I would move my chair over by the window each night an wrap myself into a blanket, sitting there waiting for it to appear, each time growing more nervous, frightened that it wouldn't't come. It was this fact that surprised me, it had been the night before that I realised that I looked forward to the strange little ritual, it had been late, the animal showing up about 15 minutes late. I could have sworn that it had been in pain, it's usual lithe movements had changed, instead it had limped along the forest edge, earning a gasp from me when I noticed and when it had whimpered in what I assumed was pain. I was worried about it, I wanted to comfort it somehow, but when I went to move out of the room the animal's whining became a little more frantic, I rushed back to the window the sounds instantly ceasing. I sat into the chair and refused to move from the spot, eventually falling asleep there, when I woke up that morning it had been gone as always.

"Claire I was talking to Emily a little earlier and they want us to come over for dinner tonight….to see how your first week at school went.." Jane announced from the living room door, her expression oddly guarded. As usual I jumped not having heard her approach, the odd image of Jane making a great burglar entered my mind, the woman had grace that could easily be compared to stealth that was almost frightening. "Oh…well were you planning on going?" I asked uncertain as to whether or not she was asking me or informing me that I was going there tonight. Jane rolled her eyes at me, "Well I wouldn't bother telling you about it unless I had agreed that we would go…I just wanted to let you know not to eat too much today you now how much Emily cooks.." Jane added a small smile playing on her lips, I smiled too not being able to help myself , Jane's small gesture was one of her rare shows of affection that were becoming more common-place. "Alright then what time are we going over there at?" I asked, looking between her and the T.V, I was watching an old DVD box-set of Doctor Who, I had seen it about a hundred times over at this stage, but it never grew old. "Well we ought to be leaving here at about five I think.." Jane answered biting her lip as she thought it over, looking down at me then surveying my outfit, "Claire please change out of…that.." she finished shuddering in obvious disgust at my outfit. I shrugged non-committaly, I had been wearing lime green jeans and a grey vest top along with a pair of flip flops, hardly my favourite outfit but it was fine for hanging around the house in. Typical Jane, whenever I had a moment where I saw a good side to her she had to go and trample all over it. Turning back to the TV. I turned p the volume one of my favourite episodes had just come on, the Doctor and his companion Rose Tyler, meet Queen Victoria and encountered a werewolf, by far one of the best episodes I owned.

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"Claire!!...you're here it's been so long since we've seen you!" Emily exclaimed greeting her at the door with a bone-crushing hug, knocking the wind right out of her. "Hi aunt Emily…it's good to see you too.." I laughed, at her enthusiasm, it was nice to have someone so eager to see me. "So how was your first week at school then?" she asked dragging me across the room into the kitchen sitting me down nearest to the cooker, where she took over stirring a saucepan that Caleb had been looking after. Caleb smiled at me before moving across the kitchen to slice some vegetables. "It was fine.." I answered truthfully, "nothing special…same old same old, go to class listen, get work ,do work ya da ya da ya da.." I trailed off at the sceptical frown that had appeared on Emily's face. Before she could say anything else though, Hannah appeared out of nowhere, squealing in excitement when she saw me.

"CLAIRE!.." she screamed in my ear as she threw her arms around me, squeezing me around my neck a little too enthusiastically. "Hey.. Hannah…can't…breathe.." I managed to breathe out, tapping her arm to make her let me go. Hannah quickly let me go holding her arms up in the air in a pose of surrender, before sitting down beside me launching into a fast flowing speech about her own first week at school. I on the other hand had to take my inhaler out of my bag taking two fast blasts from it, instantly feeling some relief, my breathing stabilising somewhat. I hated the fact that my asthma was playing up again, it was unfair for it to stop affecting me for a while and then to suddenly reappear again. Hannah continued to talk for a few minutes, ignoring my use of my inhaler as though it were the most natural thing in the world. I saw Emily roll her eyes at Hannah, frowning slightly at her daughters insensitivity, but I didn't mind I knew that she hadn't meant to hurt me. Jane on the other hand watched the scene with a faint hint of amusement, and was to my surprise having some kind of discussion with Caleb, I couldn't really hear what they were talking about, but Caleb had a huge grin on his face, so I assumed that he was enjoying it.

"Well Claire what were they like?" Hannah asked eagerly leaning forward in her chair, expecting an answer from me. My mouth dropped in confusion, I hadn't been paying attention to what she had been saying too distracted by what everyone else was doing. "I'm sorry Hannah what did you say?" I asked politely, smiling at her apologetically. Hannah waved a hand of dismissal, "It's alright Claire...honestly thought where's your head at, I was talking about the boys at your school…." she finished staring at me expectantly, at my clueless expression she sighed and explained herself, "Are they cute or what!…" she exclaimed, "I bet they are…and I suppose the girls are all really pretty too…" she trailed off with a wistful expression. I thought about it for a moment, trying to think of the best way to phrase my answer, "Well…I mean I didn't really look at them to be hounest…I guess that some of them are…I know the girls are really into their labels.." I shrugged not being able to really think of anyone that I had deemed attractive in my mind, only being able to see the expensive school bags that they used. That was one of the problems you get from staring at your feet when you walk as opposed to around you.

Hannah frowned at me with disappointment, something that I was growing accustomed to now, everyone seemed to be doing it lately. "Claire you are something else…you've been there for a week already and you haven't noticed anyone…I mean you were in La Push for a few hours when you met Quill!" Hannah exclaimed waving her arms around dramatically. I froze at this point, seeing Jane stiffen at the mention of Quill's name, Emily looked slightly panicked glaring in Hannah's direction, her face falling in confusion at her mother's expression, for once seeming to know that she ought to stay quiet. Emily laughed with forced cheerfulness, "Hannah leave you cousin alone honestly she's only been here a few minutes and your already harassing her…give her a chance to relax will you…get her a drink will you please?" Emily rushed out, trying to placate Jane who looked as though Hannah had announced her impending decision to strike up a career in prostitution. I knew that Jane had some problem with Quill, but I was surprised by Emily's reaction all the same, Jane was glaring at Emily, and Emily was pointedly attempting to avoid her stare.

Sam walked into the house then, "Evening everyone and how are you all?" smiling around at everyone before quickly greeting Emily with his customary kisses, one for the scars and one on the lips. I saw Jane wince slightly at this display of affection, Hannah and Caleb accustomed to it didn't even seem to notice. "Claire honey how are you?" Sam asked beaming at her, placing an arm on her shoulder in a fatherly gesture, I smiled up at him in response, trying to ignore the earlier tension in the room. "I'm good thanks and you?" I asked politely, as Sam sat down beside me at the table, leaning his chin on his hand that he had propped up on the table, a mannerism that would annoy Jane to death I knew. Sam who grinned over at me, "Really well thanks kid…I was just over at the garage.." he finished from a glance from Emily, "I was dropping off some fuses on my way home, I think that poor Stanley is getting a little carried away with some of the equipment.." Sam trailed off laughing. I smiled back politely, not wanting to think too much about the garage, already having thought about Quill far too much for my liking.

Dinner was awkward, despite the eager attempts by both Emily and Sam to keep things cheerful around the table. Hannah seemed blissfully unaware of what was happening, whilst Caleb looked a little uncomfortable, not knowing what was going on but sensing the tension all the same. Reilly was over at a friends house and wouldn't be back until after dinner, which I regretted, not because I really wanted to see him, but because if anything could distract us from the situation it was Reilly. Jane was continuing to look suspiciously around the table, as though she were suddenly expecting Quill to appear out from the closet or something, Sam and Emily hiding him around the house for when Claire called over. Not that they would, Claire could not imagine any reason for them to do such a thing, especially considering that Quill had a girlfriend. I shuddered in my seat at the thought, Suzette, I had thought over that name so many times in the last number of weeks that I was beginning to imagine I heard it in random mundane sounds. In the drip of a tap or the tick of a clock, sometimes when I was obsessing over the elusive Suzette, the sounds would tease me seemingly calling out her name.

"So what do they teach you at this fancy school of yours then Claire?" Sam asked smiling broadly at me, obviously finding the thought of my private school to be funny. I grinned back at him in response "Nothing that they don't teach in any other school…well unless you count the whole weapons handling class.." I trailed off frowning in disapproval, Sam laughed at my response raising his cup of coffee to his mouth, before stopping and placing the cup back on the table. "Claire…you are kidding right?" he asked uncertainly, I burst out laughing as did Emily, beside him who patted his arm sympathetically kissing him on the cheek and patting his hair down with her hand. Sam blushed slightly, frowning in my direction in mock disapproval, Jane on the other hand looked as though she were fighting the urge to snap at me for mocking the school that she and her father paid so much for her to attend.

Everyone was interrupted by the entrance of Reilly, who as usual made the most simple of events, such as walking into a room dramatic. "Hey cuz what's up?…where's the car or did you get shot of it already?" He asked hopefully, "I knew you'd follow my advice at some stage and get a new car.." he declared loudly, before finally noticing that Jane was at the table too. "Oh.." he began his face falling slightly, "Auntie J I didn't see you there how are you?" he asked beaming in her direction. Jane on the other hand didn't seem to know what to say, either both at her nephews impulsive manner or the fact that he had called her Auntie J, a thoroughly unsuitable name.

"Hello Reilly.." Jane finally forced out, half attempting a smile that appeared to be more of a grimace than anything else. "Hey!" I smiled waving in his direction, grabbing another one of Emily's muffins from the table as I did, hoping that I wouldn't't meet one of Jane's disapproving glances, due to her dieting ways. I noticed Jane turn and throw a suspicious glance at Sam, who didn't't seem to notice anything at all out of the ordinary and was cheerfully talking to Reilly.

The awkward tension didn't't leave for the rest of the evening, Jane being particularly sullen, and seeming to not enjoy herself. I couldn't't understand why she wouldn't't leave myself but I decided not to ask, rather enjoying my cousins company who were all recounting their first weeks back at school, of course Reilly's in particular being quite colourful. Hannah had towards the end of the night, asked me to come upstairs with her, for what I assumed would be some kind of girly ritual or other, once safely in her room sunk into her newly acquired bean bags with the twins playing PS2 down the hall; she dove into an account about her latest crush. This had lasted close to half an hour, she had talked about everything from the colour of his eyes to his shoelaces and what his writing was like, I sat there smiling and nodding politely, not really knowing what I ought to say, this being quite foreign to me. Susan had never come to me about her crushes or boyfriends, talking to her friends about it instead I would sometimes overhear snippets of her conversations when they had stayed over or when she was talking on the phone. Although unlike Hannah who had a shy, innocent enthusiasm about her, Susan spoke with a boastful confident air, the men in her life being conquests more than anything else.

Just when it seemed as though Hannah was about to stop talking I caught the glimmer of remembrance about her, her eyes widened as she rushed to finish off what she was saying before she could launch into her new point. Before she got the chance I quickly stood up, "I think that I heard Jane call me just now…I had better go and see what she wants!" I lied quickly, smiling sympathetically and rolling my eyes in pretend annoyance, when in fact I couldn't't get away from Hannah fast enough. Talking about crushes was not something that I wanted to get into, I was only grateful that Hannah had been too caught up in her own love life to remember ask any questions about mine. "Oh ok…I didn't't hear anything though…" Hannah trailed off dejectedly, obviously disappointed at the loss of her audience, "come back up though if she's staying longer!" she finished smiling hopefully. I nodded and smiled, before quickly leaving the room, I knew that she would be listening for Jane to call again if I waited any longer and when it didn't't come I would no doubt have to sit there and listen to her ramble.

I walked quietly past the twins room, not wanting to gain their attention, their room was right by the staircase so they would definitely have heard Jane if she had called me, there would be no excuses not to stop and talk to them if they saw me. Continuing down the stairs, creeping as opposed to walking, I could hear rushed voices coming from the kitchen, not raised but both sounding serious and tense, as though they were in fact fighting. Moving closer to the partially closed door, I saw that it was Jane and Sam, both of them leaning across the kitchen table, Jane glaring and Sam with a pleading expression, Emily was sitting at the end of the table between them both, holding both Jane and Sam's hands in hers on the table before her her gaze shifting between the two but mostly concentrated on Jane. I leaned as close to the door as possible without being seen to hear them speak better. I almost screamed when someone placed a hand on my shoulder, instead stumbling backwards into them, "Claire are you alright?….what are you doing out here?" he asked suspiciously, I was too confused by what I had just heard to answer him, instead staring at him open mouthed uncertain of what to say. I was glad though that it was Caleb not Reilly that had found me, I knew that with Reilly would come the dramatics which would surely cause me more trouble than was necessary.

Caleb glanced between me and the scene at the table with dawning comprehension and coughed loudly, placing a finger to his lips before walking into the kitchen, with two mugs that I hadn't noticed before in hand. Gathering myself together, I walked into the kitchen after him, everyone at the table stared at me, all with the same panicked expression, I assumed that Caleb had received the same welcome, they were obviously wondering if we had heard anything. But the thing was I hadn't heard anything, all I knew was that they had been arguing about something. Jane moved to stand at the sight of me, Emily still holding on to her hand. "Claire I think that it's about time we leave, we wouldn't want to outstay our welcome.." Jane supplied quickly not surprising me but not making it any easier to figure out what had happened. I glanced around at everyone confused as Jane snatched her hand back from Emily and began walking towards the door, "Thank you for dinner goodnight!" she called over her shoulder. I walked a little more slowly, "Thank you for dinner....it was nice of you to invite us.." I supplied smiling, Emily taking her into a quick hug, before I left. If Jane was going to be rude then let her, but I had no reason to be.

Jane had started the car by the time I got outside, tapping the wheel impatiently I sat into the car watching her expression, it was tight and she seemed to be having some difficulty in accepting something that had been said; the internal conflict more than clear on her face. "Is everything alright?" I asked eventually, not knowing what to expect as an answer probably something dismissive though. Jane glanced over at me though, surprising me with a soft expression, "Yes everything is fine…we were just talking…from now on everything will be the way it ought to be.." Jane supplied, her answer sounding like a decision. "Alright then….glad to hear that everything's fine then …" I replied, staring straight ahead completely confused by her answer, I could only assume that Jane and Emily had settled some past differences or were at least getting there. At least there seemed to be something positive happening for Jane for once, selfishly I couldn't help but wonder when it would be my turn.


	35. Chapter 35

Chapter Thirty

Authors Note: Here's the next two chapters! Hope you enjoy them and leave any kind of reviews good or bad!!

Q.P.O.V

Four weeks. That was how long it had been since I had spoke with Claire. I had seen her though, every night in wolf form watching her from outside her house ensuring that she was safe. Sam had argued with me at first, worried that I would be spotted, but he had no power over me now, he could only ask me, help me see sense as he called it. Jacob on the other hand, realised what I was going through, letting me have my way and watch over Claire nightly, I missed speaking with her so much, seeing her was becoming a small consolation. Each night I would go to her house and watch her from a distance, sometimes during the day but it was more difficult then with more chance of being spotted by a human. I had replayed my last day with Claire over and over again to the point where the rest of the pack choose not to be in wolf form when I was patrolling near Claire's; despite the ever present threat of the vampire that we had noticed a few weeks ago.

It was a single female, she had a gift of convincing people to do as she pleased with her voice from what we could tell. Colin had come across her one evening when he had been on his way back to La Push from a long run, he had smelled her before he had seen her, she was near a group of campers, whispering to a child that was playing out of sight of it's parents behind a camper van. The child a little boy of about seven, who had at first been afraid of the woman, had calmed as soon as she had told him to; before asking him to go and invite his sister on a walk with him and herself. The boy had immediately stood to go, without any need of persuasion walking towards the end of the van, but that was when the vampire had become aware of Colin's presence, and without any warning to the boy, had snatched him and began to run. The boy was not Quileute but it wasn't as though Colin could leave the boy to her, he chased after trying to lead her closer to La Push, into the hills where we had once fought against the army of newborns, along side the Cullens.

I had phased just as he was getting close to his destination, realising instantly what was happening Colin calling for someone to help him, afraid that he would not be able to fight her alone without somehow hurting the child. There was no time to ring any of the others for help, none of them being in their wolf form at the time, I ran as quickly as I could to the images that were appearing in Colin's mind. When I could see them, Colin was circling around the vampire who was holding the screaming child against her chest possessively, glancing hungrily toward him every few seconds, her eyes the shade of red which gave away her diet. I wasn't sure if she noticed my presence or not at first, but I didn't pause to think, glad of the distraction from the pain I had been suffering over the last number of weeks. The female dropped the child, or more accurately threw him away from her and Colin where he would be out of the way, but close enough to reclaim later, he wasn't hurt quickly scrambling towards a pile of rocks that were close by to hide behind.

Colin had all of her attention, or so I believed as I raced out from the forest, ready to pounce on her. In a movement that was so fast that I barely had time to realise what was happening, the female turned quickly on the spot kicking Colin directly in the chest, knocking him away from her as she turned and grabbed at me mid-pounce pulling at my foreleg in a painful movement, where my leg no longer felt connected to my body and throwing me across the clearing that we were standing in. The pain was unbearable, I was certain that she had pulled my leg out of it's socket, and that a few of my ribs had been broken from the impact off the ground when I had landed, considering the force that she had thrown me with. Forgetting my pain for a moment I looked up now to see Colin, glancing panicked between myself the female and the child who he had positioned himself in front of.

I watched as the female gave one last wistful glance towards where the child was hiding, before she sprinted out of the clearing. Colin chased after her, running until she had passed safely out of La Push territory, but she was too fast for Colin to keep up with. Besides her speed, he had wanted to get back to help me, and to bring the child home to it's parents. "Quil are you alright?…..how are you healing?" he had asked me as he ran. "I'm fine…just a few broken bones nothing that won't fix itself…." I answered truthfully, "Before you get back though I want you to phase back into a human….pretend as though you were out for a walk or something and that you had found the boy….take him home…and Colin…don't tell the parents about this…tell him that you found him on the highway or something….for all they know it was his imagination if he starts talking about the blood-sucker.." I growled the last part angry at the pain that she had caused me. Colin agreed, and I watched as he did as I had asked him to, running home for his truck. The boy had watched me from behind the rocks with a mixture of fear, pity and curiosity, never moving from his hiding spot. Colin when he arrived walked into the clearing looking as though he were simply out for a walk, his gait directionless but to me purposeful, if for any reason some innocent bystander had seen him they would never know that he knew where the child was.

Colin pretended to hear something near the rocks and leaned over by the pile feignin the sound of surprise seeing the boy, waving in a friendly non-threatening gesture not wanting to frighten him further. It was taking longer than I though was necessary, the pain was decreasing but I found my position uncomfortable and I knew that moving around would only frighten the child further. Finally the child after some coaxing from Colin, approached him and when he finally got here upon feeling the warmth radiating from Colin leapt at him wrapping his small arms around Colin's leg. "You're not cold like the lady.." he sobbed, gripping onto Colin's leg so tightly that his arms were whitening from the tension. Colin laughed slightly before picking the little boy up, "Nope not cold little man….quite warm from walking about as it happens…I don't see any lady though.." he trailed off, obviously testing to see what the child's reaction would be and what answer he would give in response. Instantly the little boy craned his neck in order to look around him, making sure that the woman was in fact no longer there or at least within earshot.

"No she ran away when the dogs came…….I didn't like her she said she wanted to play …but I didn't want to play with her and she made me…" the little boy's eyes were welling up with tears now, "I want my mam…." he declared, sniffing at the same time, evidently trying to hold back the tears that were threatening to overcome him. "Hey little man…don't worry about the lady alright your friend the dog made her go away right?…well I'm here now too and I won't let her pick on you again….so next stop will be back to your family and maybe we might get you some chocolate how does that sound?" he asked smiling broadly at the child, who was appearing increasingly relaxed in Colin's company. Chocolate seemed to be the magic word, the fear in his expression changing to one of excitement in a matter of moments; I guessed that it was as much for a distraction from the thought of the vampire as it was for the shock.

As soon as they were out of sight I tried to phase back, but I shouldn't have bothered, it hurt too much instead I decided to wait a while further until the pain had abated somewhat. It was growing late, the night growing progressively dark around me, not that it bothered me but I soon realised that it was growing close to the time when I would usually visit Claire. At the thought of Claire I began to panic, what if the vampire decided to track us in revenge for the loss of a meal, my scent was all around Claire's house it would be one of the first places that she would check if she could. Immediately I pulled myself up from the ground walking in the direction of Claire's house. I hoped that Colin in his rush home had thought to ring one of the other pack members to let them know about tonight's events, I couldn't hear any of the others thoughts, and my slow progress was panicking me further when I heard Embry. Telling him about everything that had just happened as quickly as I could, Embry went to inform the others and to go and patrol around Claire's house.

It took me a lot longer than I would have liked to get there, Embry had been growing impatient, there had been no sign of the female anywhere around the house. Before I could even see Embry he had left, he had been working all day and didn't want to wait around when he could be in bed. My usual stealth had to be abandoned, I knew she could see me, but I usually didn't let her see the direction that I came from, emerging instead from amongst the trees. I walked now alongside the tree line until I knew that she could see me, not being able to prevent the limp that had formed from my injuries. As I looked up at Claire's window I was worried that she might have decided to go to bed, since I was later than usual, but she was sitting as always in her chair watching out for me. When she saw me I saw the shock and worry that immediately formed on her face, before she began to stand, I howled in response, not wanting to frighten her but warning her to stay where she was. I wanted to be able to keep her safe and see her at once, her being in her room was safe enough, being outside in the middle of the night with an injured werewolf was not the greatest example of protection I had ever thought of.  
I stayed there for the rest of the night, not daring to close my eyes for longer than a second. Claire had fallen asleep watching me, every time that she had made a move to leave, I had rather selfishly howled in response. I couldn't help myself it came before I even though about what I was doing. She was beautiful, in her sleep Claire would curl up, pulling her arms tightly around herself as though it was the only way of keeping herself together. I could have watched her sleep like that for hours to come, but I was interrupted by Jacob, calling to me having phased, telling me that it was about time that I went back to my house. Grudgingly I left, Jacob could order me to do as he pleased, but when it came to Claire he had no power, an imprint was always above the pack, a sour note to those among us who had yet to imprint. I didn't want to be there when Claire woke up, it was too easy to be spotted, night time was one thing but daylight was a completely different matter. Being spotted in wolf form would be a bad idea, Jane or any other of Claire's neighbours could see, I didn't need another object coming between my seeing Claire.

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"Quill think back what exactly did you do?" Suzette ordered down the phone, annoying me to no ends. "Don't you think if I knew that I would have tried to fix it myself by now?" I snapped back, most people would leave it be at this point, but not Suzette. "Don't you take that tone with me Artera you messed up with that girl and I'm trying to help you…fresh perspective and all that so take it easy it's not as though your figuring much out on your own….now think what was the last thing you said to her before she changed?" she replied, her tone demanding and thoroughly unapologetic, I had to fight the urge to slam the phone down, my hand shaking slightly. "Quill I'm waiting!" she called in a sing song voice, I groaned, "Give me a second will you I'm trying to think!".

I thought back upon that last day in the car for what felt like the millionth time, the other pack members had seen it and none of them had any ideas as to what had caused Claire to suddenly turn on me. I sighed in defeat, "Honestly Suze I have no idea…I mean I was talking about your plans for when you finished your degree and when I was done Claire was well…the way that she is now…I don't know if she's angry with me or….I mean what the hell else could she be?" I finished exasperatedly. Suzette paused for a moment or two before answering, "I'm not sure…I mean I doubt that she's angry with you that would be a little strange because from what you've said you didn't do anything…I mean it might have nothing to do with you maybe like you said she misses her own sister and you struck a nerve…" she trailed off, hardly giving me time to think about what she had said before she launched into another thought. "Are you sure that Claire knows I'm your sister?…if she did have some kind of interest in you...which I have heard she does I think that she might have got the wrong impression about you and I…" I didn't let her finish this train of though before I interrupted. "No way…no that is not it I told Claire about you before we were at the garage and I remember distinctly telling her that I had a sister too.." I finished, slightly disgusted at the thought of someone thinking that Suzette was somehow in relationship with me.

Suzette laughed for a second, "Quill…I'll take your disgust as a compliment I'm glad to know that you have no incestuous tendencies…but you said that you told Claire you had a sister what else did you tell her about me?" she insisted. I thought about it again, it had been about a week before Claire's driving test, she rarely spoke about her family and had been talking about what they were doing back in England, when I had mentioned I had a sister, before Sam had interrupted, needing to get to work soon after. Could Claire have forgotten my mentioning of a sister? I couldn't remember if I had said her name or not but I doubted that this could be the reason, it couldn't be that simple could it?. Suzette coughed impatiently on the phone, snapping me out of my reverie.

"I was telling her about you before…well just mentioning that I had a sister…we were just talking about family…but Sam interrupted us…so I know that she knows I have a sister but…." I stopped, if I didn't really think that this was the reason behind Claire's sudden aversion to me should I really placate Suzette; she could be a handul when she got an idea into her head. I decided that there was very little that she could do from New York before answering her honestly, "I don't think I said your name…or at least I was about to when Sam called…but Suzette even if that were the case and Claire somehow thinks that your something else.." I began feeling that familiar uncomfortable sensation at the thought of Claire possibly thinking that, "Why would she react like that to it?". I pleaded, hoping that she would have some kind of girls perspective on the matter. Suzette not for the first time laughed down the phone at me, "Quill honestly do you know anything about women?….alright look Claire is a sixteen year old girl she has moved here from a different country and she meets you her…well I guess her soul mate and she gets to know you and theirs this whole freaky wolf connection thing going on and not to mention covert attempts to get you to meet her, it's interesting exciting and from what Emily and some of the others have told me she seems to really like you….now if that was you and you didn't realise that she had for arguments sake a brother and she started talking about him wouldn't you feel rather deflated…disappointed...this person that you have this weird friendship with has a partner already…or at least you think they do…because that would explain why Claire is being like this I mean who wants to be around a person that they have feelings for when they think the other person has none.." she finished her voice rather sympathetic. I was stunned, that made far too much sense for my liking, I hated that Suzette could be right and Claire was upset about something that wasn't true.

"Alright well…I'm not saying that this is what's bothering her ….but even if it is…what do you think I should do about it?….she's not talking to me as far as I can tell…not coming to the garage like she used to…even Sam and Emily have a hard time getting her to come around…and even when she does it's out of the blue or with her mother and that lasts for pretty much no time at all…it's so frustrating!" I sighed. Suzette paused then, the only sign that she was still there was the sound of her breathing into the receiver, she evidently was just about as clueless as I was, it was all well and good to finally have some idea about what was going on in Claire's mind, but how was I supposed to meet her to change that. "Quill I think that one of your only options is to call by her place.." I cut Suzette off at this point, "NO! I can't do that if I do that and Jane is there she'll send her back to London without thinking twice about it and even if I did go over there how would I explain it?? Sure we're friends but it's not like she has my number or anything and I most definitely am not supposed to know where she lives…" I ranted, feeling more hopeless than ever. Suzette made a humming noise down the phone, something she always did when she was concentrating on something that she found particularly difficult.

"Quill all I can say to you is try….and even if you can't do what I've said….then use your imagination will you please?…I've watched you wait all these years almost my entire life and I want you to be happy so whatever you do don't give up now, not when your so close…please?" she pleaded, taking me aback for a moment. "Don't worry Suze…I won't…never would never could.."


	36. Chapter 36

Chapter Thirty-One

S.P.O.V

If I had learned anything in this life it was to expect the unexpected. My life had been made up of one surprise after the other, finding out that all of the Quileute legends were true and that I was a werewolf being the first. Then there was imprinting the biggest surprise of all, one that had caused me no end of suffering and unimaginable joy, it had brought me to Emily, had taken Leah from me, but it had also given me my children. Three more beautiful surprises, I would never forget the day that Emily had told me for the first time that she was pregnant, scaring me half to death when the doctor announced we were having twins, the overwhelming love towards each of them, the only thing that even came remotely close to how I felt for Emily.

The one surprise that I had never expected and seemed to continue to cause pain to all of those involved no matter how much time had passed, was Quill imprinting on Claire. Fourteen years spent watching as Quill suffered through the separation between Claire and him, seeing the old Quill that we had all grown to love fade away before us, and then slowly rebuilding himself into a what we recognised as a shadow of his former self. Fourteen years, and then Claire had returned, no one had expected it, I had hoped that when she was a little older she might decide to come and visit her family, but I had never thought that she would end up living nearby. Emily had just about dropped the phone the first time that Jane had rang her to announce her plans, and had promptly burst into tears when she heard that Claire was coming too. I had been in the kitchen when it had happened, not being able to figure out what was happening, but having an equally delighted reaction when I had heard the news myself.

It should have been easy from there on in. Despite Jane's argument against Quill and Claire meeting, we had rose above it and managed to have them meet without Jane's knowledge, they were becoming closer, Claire's face always brightened at the mention of Quill's name it was adorable how excited she would get, same went for Quill although he was a little more desperate than Claire at the prospect of meeting one another. I had watched this delighted at everything around the two of them, Quill returning to his former self, he seemed whole now and happy. But as usual something unexpected had come around and changed everything, now I was met by pained hurt expressions from both of them, both miserable and barely able to hide it. I could see that Claire worked hard to hide her misery, she had always been rather quiet but I had become used to her friendly warm nature, always ready with a joke or two, ready to chat about everything and anything. Now she made half hearted attempts at her jokes and conversation opting to sit quietly instead of talking.

It was completely unexpected, but what's more, with each of the unexpected events in my life there had been an explination following it soon enough after. The weeks were slipping by quickly and as of yet no one seemed to know what had caused such a turn around in Claire. From what I could tell it had began with the car ride, whatever Quill had done or said to Claire it had left her like this, reluctant to be near us all, hesitant and retiring.

Now here we were having dinner, Jane had been throwing me enquiring looks all night that I thought held some kind of accusation. Claire was seemingly with some effort trying to be a little more like her old self, joking about her subjects at Oak Falls, but as usual it wasn't the same Claire. I had thought that dinner would never end, I wanted to get the chance to speak with Claire alone, to see if I could maybe figure out exactly what was bothering my niece. Instead Hannah stole her cousin away for some kind of girly conversation that Claire didn't seem too excited about, the forced cheer that had been around the table evaporated almost instantly. Jane sat up even straighter in her chair if that was even possible, looking as though she were preparing herself for a fight. Emily froze, obviously she recognised the signs after years of sisterly rivalry and fighting. " I want you to make him stop this and I want it to stop right now!" Jane demanded, leaning forwards across the table. "Jane what are you talking about?" Emily asked looking questioningly towards me, as though I would have all the answers, but I had no idea what Jane was talking about either.

Jane laughed at our response, "As if the two of you don't know what I'm talking about...I bet you both had some part to play in this the two of you always conspiring about him and Claire.." she ranted, pausing as she took note of our shocked expressions, "look at you both sitting there as though butter wouldn't melt I know what you have been doing!...Claire told me that Sam took her to the garage and that she had met Quill...after everything that I said everything that you promised me you would do and now Claire has some kind of crush on him ...moping around the house and having him howling around the house every night...I swear Sam if you don't do something about this soon I will take matters into my own hands!" she threatened, staring at me.

I sat there in silence for a moment stunned at Jane's rant, what did she mean about Quill being around there house at night, no one had told me about that, and Claire had told Jane that she had a crush on Quill. I almost grinned in spite of myself, if it wasn't for the gravity of the situation I would have laughed happy to hear that I hadn't imagined my niece's interest in Quill. "Jane I...there's a lot to take in there...for one thing Claire may have met Quill in the garage but I can't be held responsible for where Quill may or may not be..." I lied easily, not wanting to outwardly admit to having been responsible for them meeting, Jane may know that I was responsible but I wasn't going to admit it and cause more trouble than was absolutely necessary. "As for Quill being around your house...then...wait did you say howling?" I asked surprised and more than a little annoyed at Quill's little stunt, if he had just been subtle she might never have noticed him being there, that is if it was actually him.

"Don't look so shocked Sam!" Jane snapped back, "You're the one that probably put him up to it in the first place!... I mean your hardly what I would call trustworthy!". Jane spat out the last part. Until this Emily had sat in silence looking back and forth between us both as we spoke, but upon hearing Jane's insults she finally decided that she needed to intervene. "Jane if you don't mind I would appreciate it if you kept your voice and your opinion about my husbands character to yourself....I know your only concerned for Claire and you have every right to be....but we have children too and I don't want them to have to hear their aunt that they barely know hurling insults at their father that are completely untrue...they know that and I would hate for them to not give you a chance based on you loosing your temper..." Emily finished her voice low and calm but forceful at the same time. I squeezed Emily's hand which I had been holding on the table a little tighter, it was strange to have Emily defending me usually that was my role and it was rare that anybody ever criticised me, not that I was anything particularly great but within the tribe I was respected.

Jane's face turned a deep shade of red, she shifted in her seat uncomfortably, "Fine I'll keep my voice down...for the children's sake but I stand by what I said...We agreed Sam...you agreed that this would all stop...you wouldn't let him near her and now look what's happened she's up half the night every night watching out that accursed window of hers waiting for that...that thing to come and.." she shuddered in the seat at whatever prospect she thought that would mean. I was definitely going to have to have a word with Quill later about what he was doing. "I know that we agreed on this Emily and I have kept to my side of the bargain Quill has never gone to your house to my knowledge or consent...." I didn't get a chance to finish before Jane interrupted me. "Sam I know what I saw and it was him!....just like what you said wolves only bigger...I see him every night, every single night and your telling me that you didn't have something to do with it?"

I leaned back in my chair considering what I ought to say, should I tell her that I no longer had control over the pack that the responsibility now lay with Jacob, even if Jacob did say something to Quill it didn't matter because imprint trumps pack. None of this information would help, it would only send Jane over the edge entirely. "I don't know if it Quill was near your house but I'll have a word with him....it might have been another member of the pack just patrolling nearby..." Jane rose her eyebrows at this, we both knew that it was Quill and there was no point in pretending that it wasn't. Before she could say anything else I interrupted, "Jane I understand your fears about Quill but you have to understand that if he or any other member of the pack for that matter are near your house....they are there for one reason and one reason only and that is to protect her....and you...like it or not your both important to the tribe and as long as your both near us we're going to want to look after you...but obviously from a distance just like you wanted...no one will come too close to Claire..." I promised, lying yet again.

"Claire and I don't need protecting Sam....we're absolutely fine and I don't see how we're both important to you all...they hardly know us...and I don't like the idea of any of them being near my house...but if you insist on this I'm willing to make one compromise and that is for whichever one of you that is hanging around every night to stay out of sight...I don't want Claire being exposed to them in any kind of way when their like that...she's a caring girl a little too soft for her own good and I don't want her thinking that it's alright to go out and get a closer look or something!" she finished exasperatedly.

"Jane...can I ask you something hounestly?" Emily asked staring at Jane with an uncertain, almost cautious expression. Jane returned her look with an equally wary expression before answering, "I suppose you can...what is it?"she answered quietly. "Well I was wondering if you trusted me?" Emily asked simply, only I could tell that she was nervous about what Jane's answer would be, her grip on my hand tightening slightly as she waited. It wasn't something that Jane had expected judging from her reaction, she sat back in her chair and looked around the kitchen and towards the door leading toward the hall and the stairs beyond; obviously thinking about the children. "Emily your my sister...and I...I trust you...but how can I trust something that could hurt my child...I mean look at you Sam did this to you and I know that you have forgiven him and he has never done anything else like it since........but you can't speak for Quill..you can't know that this won't happen again...and what kind of mother would I be if I exposed my child to that risk."

Now it was my turn to blanch at Jane's mention of what I did to Emily, I hated that this was part of the reason why Quill and Claire were hurting, it shouldn't have anything to do with them; it was my mistake and I had to live with that each day, it belonged in the past not now; and certainly not with Quill and Claire. Emily seemed to think the same thing, "I completely understand where your coming from Jane and if I were in your shoes I think that I would feel the same way....but I wouldn't let it come between my child and whoever would make them happy...I know that your looking at it from the point of view of how it would be a risk to Claire's safety.." Emily was cut off from a loud groan from Jane, "No Emily I don't want to hear this...my mind is made up you both made the risks perfectly clear when you told Brian and I about Quill and this imprinting business and we made our decision a long time ago...". Emily grabbed Jane's hand which she had clenched into a fist on the table, taking her by surprise, "Hear me out please Jane...that much won't hurt will it...I'm not asking for your blessing or for you to have Quill call by your house or anything just listen to me..." Emily pleaded, refusing to let go of Jane's hand despite some attempts made by her.

Jane didn't answer instead she stopped struggling, which Emily took as consent for her to keep talking. "Sam made a mistake...and that is what it was Jane...I know that we didn't really go into details about it before but it was an accident...when a person becomes a wolf for the first time it takes them a while to get used to it...their emotions control everything and they can change unexpectedly....and that's what happened Sam was going through a lot at the time with Leah and this one day he had just got off the phone with her and had upset him...." I grimaced as I waited for Emily to finish, I was replaying everything in my mind, Leah screaming down the phone at me for having to call everything off, after all the plans and promises that I had made with her. The hurt in her voice was enough to make me feel sick, I felt guilty but at the same time but relief at the idea that Emily would now possibly be easier to become close to.

I listened again as Emily who had paused began talking again, "I saw him shaking....but I...I didn't know what it meant at the time I wanted to see if he was alright...but of course he wasn't he was about to change and he didn't know that I was there...if I had just said something or let him know that I was there instead of sneaking up on him like that then..." Emily gestured towards her face, "this might never have happened". Emily squeezed my hand again just to make sure that I was alright, "But that was us...and we can't take back what happened it belongs in the past...what you have to understand now though is that Quill has learned to control his phasing...he's had fourteen years to perfect it and Claire couldn't be any safer around him....like Sam said I don't expect you to have him around our house or anything like that...but Jane I wish you would at least consider letting Claire be friends with him if anything...just because Sam and I married it doesn't necessarily mean that Claire and Quill will follow that path...he will be whatever is best for her and what she wants, a brother, a friend...whatever she chooses...just please think about it and until you have Sam and I will both speak to Quill and the others and tell them to keep a safe distance....and one more thing if I could forgive Sam for what happened and then marry him and have children with him...don't you think I would have to trust him implicitly?....because that's what you get with your imprint complete trust and security...you can't say that about everyone, the odds of Claire being hurt by some boy and their car is far higher than the odds of Quill ever hurting Claire are...."

Jane stared at Emily for a few moments longer before deciding to answer, "Be sure to tell Quill and the others what I've said..." she began puling her hand away from Emily's grip, but Emily again refused to let go. "Jane promise me that you'll at least think about what I've said..." she asked, but before she got the chance to answer Caleb quickly followed by Claire came into the kitchen. Caleb glanced quickly at the sight before him, but being used to meetings often taking place in the house over the years walked past us towards the fridge, Claire on the other hand froze at the door, obviously confused at the sight, Jane moving to stand, Emily still holding on to her hand. "Claire I think that it's about time we leave, we wouldn't want to outstay our welcome.." Jane supplied quickly. Claire glance around her expression confused as Jane snatched her hand back and began walking towards the door, "Thank you for dinner goodnight!" she called over her shoulder. Claire walked a little more slowly, "Thank you for dinner....it was nice of you to invite us.." she added smiling, Emily taking her into a quick hug, before she left.

"I really hope she at least considers this..." Emily whispered almost to herself. I wrapped my arm around her shoulder pulling her closer to me. "I hope so too...I don't think that you could have said anymore than you did...all we can do now is wait and see..." It really was all we could do, even if Quill was seeing Claire every night, it was from a distance and the only way that we could somehow mend whatever problem that was between them, was to have Jane onside, until then I didn't know what to expect, I could only hope for the unexpected.


End file.
